These English love poems are part of a special collection from the Poetry Foundation. Carefully selected, this “best of” collection features love poems you simply must read.
A Selection of English Love Poems
As mentioned above, this collection was curated by the renowned online publication, the Poetry Foundation. I think it’s safe to say we can trust them—they know their craft well.
Best of English Love Poems #1
Song (“Love has crept…”)
by D. H. Lawrence
Love has crept into her sealed heart
As a field bee, black and amber,
Breaks from the winter-cell, to clamber
Up the warm grass where the sunbeams start.
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #2
Sonnet 65: Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
by William Shakespeare
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea
But sad mortality o’er-sways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #3
from Endymion
by John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
(Complete excerpt continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #4
Love
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #5
A Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns
O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #6
Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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.
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Best of English Love Poems #7
When I Heard at the Close of the Day
by Walt Whitman
When I heard at the close of the day how my name had been receiv’d with plaudits in the capitol, still it was not a happy night for me that follow’d,
And else when I carous’d, or when my plans were accomplish’d, still I was not happy,
But the day when I rose at dawn from the bed of perfect health, refresh’d, singing, inhaling the ripe breath of autumn…
(Complete poem continues as per your text.)
Source: Love Poems | Poetry Foundation
