Love is a multifaceted thing. No matter what or how long loves lasts, love will always be a treasured part of our future and past. Love helps to shape who you become. All living beings desire love. The most difficult thing is to hold once gained love forever.
How do you know when your love is true and that you are not just fooling yourself? How do you know that you are not merely infatuated with each other? How do you know that this is a relationship that has lasting power? The truth is that these are only questions that can be answered with experience.
It may take a few bad relationships before you know how to be in a good one. Another tip is to try to use your head before you get your heart involved. If it makes sense on paper, chances are it is a good decision.
The Power of Poetry
There’s nothing quite so moving as beautiful love poems. Luckily for us romantics, they’ve been in abundant supply throughout history! From Rumi in the Islamic Golden Age, to iconic playwright William Shakespeare, to modern-day “Instapoets” like Rupi Kaur, love has been one of the most-explored themes among writers and poets for centuries.
Reading poetry is a physical activity even as it is a spiritual activity. Even if we read silently, we hear our own voice reading inside our heads. We pause at the end of lines and between stanzas, not unlike the way in which we pause when we take a breath. Sometimes we quietly move our lips, too, in a subtle and unconscious way. And sometimes we read out loud.
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Our imaginations enable us to move from one portion of the text to another, not unlike the way in which we might eat fruit salad. When you have a bowl of fruit salad in front of you, you choose the particular fruit -- bananas, strawberries, pineapple-- that strikes your fancy.
Examples of Spiritual Love Poems
Here are some examples of spiritual love poems:
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"Come, And Be My Baby" by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou was one of America’s most acclaimed poets and storytellers, as well as a celebrated educator and civil rights activist. In ‘Come, And Be My Baby’, Angelou beautifully captures how overwhelming modern life can be and the comfort that love can provide during times of hardship - even if only for a moment.
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"Bird-Understander" by Craig Arnold
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These are your own wordsyour way of noticingand saying plainlyof not turning awayfrom hurtyou have offered them to me I am only giving them back if only I could show youhow very useless they are notThe raw honesty of Craig Arnold’s poetry makes ‘Bird-Understander’ an easy pick for our list of the most beautiful love poems. In this piece, Arnold recounts a moment with his partner that makes his love grow even stronger. The language is simple yet evocative, putting a strong metaphor in the reader’s mind and facilitating a deeper understanding of Arnold’s feelings.
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"Habitation" by Margaret Atwood
at the back where we squat outside, eating popcornthe edge of the receding glacierwhere painfully and with wonderat having survived eventhis farwe are learning to make fireBest known for her alarmingly realistic dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood demonstrates similar strengths in this poem: ‘Habitation’ is strikingly real. For context, Atwood here admits to the challenges of marriage and acknowledges the work needed to overcome them. It is this candor which makes the poem so beautiful.
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"Variations on the Word Love" by Margaret Atwood
One of the most fascinating things about love is that it can come in so many different forms - platonic, passionate, or even patronizing. Margaret Atwood unflinchingly lays out some of these in her poem ‘Variations on the Word Love’.
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"The More Loving One" by W.H. Auden
Were all stars to disappear or die, I should learn to look at an empty skyAnd feel its total dark sublime, Though this might take me a little time.Whilst poems about heartbreak might not be as uplifting as those about the joys of love, they can be equally as beautiful and meaningful. The celestial extended metaphor of W.H.
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"To My Dear and Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet
Thy love is such I can no way repay;The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.Then while we live, in love let’s so persever, That when we live no more, we may live ever.Anne Bradstreet’s Puritan belief that marriage is a gift from God comes across strongly in ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband.’ Reading it through a modern lens, it’s easy to start the poem feeling a little skeptical; however, Bradstreet’s genuine gratitude and dedication to her husband soon manifests to make it a deeply moving assertion of true love.
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"Always For The First Time" by André Breton
There is a silk ladder unrolled across the ivyThere isThat leaning over the precipice Of the hopeless fusion of your presence and absence I have found the secret Of loving youAlways for the first time‘Always For The First Time’ is André Breton’s ode to a woman he has not met, but is willing to wait every day for. Breton was the French founder of the surrealist movement, which aimed to blur the lines between dreams and reality in art - explaining the rather whimsical nature of this beautiful love poem.
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"Love and Friendship" by Emily Brontë
Love doesn’t have to be confined to romance - love between friends can be just as strong and beautiful. In ‘Love and Friendship’, Emily Brontë compares romantic love to a rose - stunning but short-lived - and friendship to a holly tree which can endure all seasons.
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"To Be In Love" by Gwendolyn Brooks
Next on our list of the most beautiful poems about love is ‘To Be in Love’ by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks was a poet, author, and teacher - and perhaps most notably, in 1950, was also the first African-American writer to receive a Pulitzer Prize. In this powerful poem, Brooks conveys the intense emotions which come with falling in love and how it can change your entire outlook on life.To be in loveIs to touch with a lighter hand.In yourself you stretch, you are well.
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"How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sightFor the ends of being and ideal grace.Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a renowned Victorian poet who influenced the work of many later English-language poets, including Emily Dickinson. ‘How Do I Love Thee?’ is one of Browning’s most recognizable poems, and indeed one of the most famous love poems ever written - its ardent yet clear declaration of love has resonated with readers for over 150 years.
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"A Red, Red Rose" by Robert Burns
Similar to Browning, Robert Burns’ profound love is evident in his poem ‘A Red, Red Rose’. Burns declares this love to be both passionate and refreshing - with each comparison, we see that even the loveliest language pales next to the depth of Burns’ ‘Luve’.
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"She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.Though its author was known for a life of adventure and scandal, Lord Byron’s poem ‘She Walks in Beauty’ refers notably less to passionate or sexual love compared to his other works. That said, his astonishment at this woman’s beauty comes across instantly, making this a beautifully romantic poem.
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"Love is a fire that burns unseen" by Luís Vaz de Camões
Love is a fire that burns unseen, a wound that aches yet isn’t felt, an always discontent contentment, a pain that rages without hurting,One of Portugal’s greatest poets, Luís Vaz de Camões is known for his lyrical poetry and dramatic epics. ‘Love is a fire that burns unseen’ is an example of the former, reflecting his numerous turbulent love affairs and how each brought a complex fusion of pleasure and pain.
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"Beautiful Signor" by Cyrus Cassells
This is the endless wanderlust:dervish, yours is the April-upon-April lovethat kept me spinning even beyond your eventful arms toward the unsurpassed:the one vast claiming heart, the glimmering, the beautiful and revealed Signor.‘Beautiful Signor’ is an entry from Cyrus Cassells’ poetry collection of the same name, which he dedicated to ‘Lovers everywhere’. Culturally set against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic, the collection aims to remind people of the potent beauty of romantic love.
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"Rondel of Merciless Beauty" by Geoffrey Chaucer
Upon my word, I tell you faithfullyThrough life and after death you are my queen;For with my death the whole truth shall be seen.Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;Their beauty shakes me who was once serene;Straight through my heart the wound is quick and keen.Widely regarded as the ‘Father of English poetry’, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote some of the most renowned works of the English language, including ‘The Canterbury Tales’ and ‘The Book of the Duchess’. The standalone poem ‘Rondel of Merciless Beauty’ (here translated from Middle English) recounts Chaucer’s heartbreak after being left by the love of his life, pledging his everlasting devotion to her even though it pains him.
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"Love Comes Quietly" by Robert Creeley
Robert Creeley’s short but striking love poem aptly summarizes the feeling of never wanting to be apart from the person you love, almost making you forget what life was like before you met them.
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"[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]" by E. E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it inmy heart)i am never without it(anywherei go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)As one of America’s most prolific twentieth century poets, E.E. Cummings needs no introduction. Many of his poems centered around love and ‘[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]’ is perhaps the best-known of them all. The rich imagery and intimate infatuation earns it a prominent spot on our list of the most beautiful love poems ever written.
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"[love is more thicker than forget]" by E.E. Cummings
love is more thicker than forget more thinner than recallmore seldom than a wave is wet more frequent than to failAnother brilliant example of Cummings’ love poetry is [love is more thicker than forget]. This poem explores the complexity of love, expressing that it cannot simply be defined as one thing or another - and indeed, painting love as a paradox of rarity and frequency, modesty and profundity, sanity and madness, and much more.
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"Sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu)" by Yrsa Daley-Ward
my thoughts about you are frightening but preciseI can see the house on the hill where we make our own vegetables out backand drink warm wine out of jam jarsand sing songs in the kitchen until the sun comes upwena you make me feel like myself again.Yrsa Daley-Ward’s ‘Sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu)’ is one of the most personal and revealing accounts of love on this list. The poem comes from her collection bone, which tackles some of the deepest aspects of humanity, including religion, desire, womanhood, race, and vulnerability.
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"Married Love" by Guan Daosheng
You and IHave so much love, That it Burns like a fire, In which we bake a lump of clayMolded into a figure of youAnd a figure of me.Guan Daosheng was a Chinese painter and poet of the early Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). ‘Married Love’ uses the image of clay figurines to represent two lovers being united as one through the sacred act of marriage, just as clay solidifies in a kiln.
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"Heart, we will forget him!" by Emily Dickinson
Heart, we will forget him!You and I, to-night!You may forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.‘Heart, we will forget him!’ aligns with the forceful nature of so many Emily Dickinson poems. It is a powerful reflection of the fallout after a passionate love affair and how she tried to move on, going so far as to command her heart to do so, even knowing it’s futile.
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"Air and Angels" by John Donne
John Donne’s work is known for tackling faith and salvation, as well as both human and divine love. In ‘Angels and Air’, Donne compares his love to the movement of angels - pure and elegant. His conclusion that two lovers can come together and grow stronger adds another layer to this already quite romantic poem.