Love Poetry in English: The category of Love Poetry is very complex and difficult to write but conveys very deep emotions associated with love. The poems explore the themes of love, romance, and desire. Love poetry is often used by lovers to express their love towards their beloved. Throughout history, there have been many great love poets from Shakespeare’s sonnets to modern-day poems. Love poems can be classified into two categories, first, they describe the beauty and feeling of being in love, and second, describe the struggle and pain of being loved. Whether to show the beauty of love or the struggles of being in love, Love Poetry in English always stays rich and portrays love.
Also Read: Poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
1-Love Poetry in English: How Do I Love Thee?
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Explanation :
The poem “ How Do I Love Thee?” is a sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that expresses her deep love for her lover. In this poem, the poet explores different aspects of her love for her lover. The poet wants the readers to understand the different ways love manifests from day to day to spiritual love. The poem portrays that love is boundless and has no limitation to anything, the poem becomes a timeless piece of work by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
2- Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Explanation :
The poem “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is a sonnet by William Shakespeare written as a tribute to his beloved. The poem starts with a question of whether he wants to compare his lover to a summer day but later on he explains that his beloved is more beautiful than a summer day. The poet used his imagination to show the contrast between nature and his beloved.
3-Love Poetry in English: Love’s Philosophy
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle;—
Why not I with thine?
See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea;—
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?
Explanation :
The Poem “Love’s Philosophy” was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poem explores the theme of harmony and unity in the real world. The poet uses natural elements to express her love for her beloved. The poet says that everything in this world is bound by love. The poem compares the connection of nature to the human heart.
4- Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Wild Nights – Wild Nights!
Were I with thee
Wild Nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the Winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah, the Sea!
Might I but moor – Tonight –
In Thee!
Explanation :
The poem “Wild Nights – Wild Nights!” is written by Emily Dickinson and shows her love to be with her beloved. The poet portrays love as a romantic sea wave with a dark night that symbolizes her desire and passion. The speaker cries for a reunion with her lover and wants to be with him for the rest of her life. The poet wants to embark on a journey to meet her lover.
5-Love Poetry in English: Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Explanation :
The poem “Love After Love” is a poem by Derek Walcott that explores the theme of self-love and acceptance. The poet says that the poem is a journey to find self-love within ourselves after neglect. The poem inspires people to love themselves embrace who they are and ignore people who say ill about you. The poem says that we can love others truly when we love ourselves and accept our true identity.
6- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields.
And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals
And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle.
A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.
Explanation :
“The Passionate Shepherd to His Love” is a classic example of pastoral poetry, a genre that idealizes rural life and often depicts an innocent, romanticized view of nature. In this poem, the shepherd entices his beloved with promises of idyllic pleasures in the countryside, including beds of roses, fragrant posies, and beautiful clothing made from natural elements.
7- To His Coy Mistress
Had we but world enough and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love’s day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges’ side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I always hear
Time’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long-preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave’s a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Explanation :
“To His Coy Mistress” is a carpe diem poem, a genre that encourages the reader (or the beloved) to seize the day and make the most of the present moment. The speaker, addressing his coy mistress, uses elaborate and hyperbolic language to express how he would woo her if they had unlimited time. However, he contends that time is fleeting, and they should act on their passions now rather than later.
8- Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And that was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulcher
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me—
Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But we loved with a love that was more than love—
I and my Annabel Lee—
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
Explanation :
“Annabel Lee” is a romantic and tragic poem that tells the story of a young couple deeply in love. The narrator and Annabel Lee live in a “kingdom by the sea” and share an extraordinary love, envied even by angels. However, their happiness is cut short when Annabel Lee dies, and the speaker believes it is due to jealousy from the angels.
9- To Be One with Each Other
What greater thing is there for two human souls
than to feel that they are joined for life —
to strengthen each other in all labor,
to rest on each other in all sorrow,
to minister to each other in all pain,
to be one with each other in silent unspeakable memories
at the moment of the last parting?
Explanation :
In this poem, George Eliot celebrates the profound connection between two people in a committed relationship. The verses convey the idea that a lasting and meaningful union involves more than just the joys and pleasures; it encompasses shared experiences, mutual support through challenges, and a deep understanding that transcends words.
There are some Love Poetry in English written by the world’s greatest poets with explanations. Stay tuned for more poems and updates.