Love — it is the most powerful, emotional, and timeless feeling known to humankind. While love can be seen in gestures and felt in silence, poetry has always been its most beautiful voice. Over the centuries, many poets have tried to capture the magic of love in words, and some of those love poems have become unforgettable.
Contents
Top 10 Love Poems in English1. Sonnet 18 – Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?2. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)3. I Carry Your Heart With Me4. She Walks in Beauty5. Love’s Philosophy6. Annabel Lee7. When You Are Old8. A Red, Red Rose9. Touched by an Angel10. Love After LoveConclusion: Love That Speaks in Verse
From classic sonnets to modern romantic verses, English literature is full of beautiful love poems that express every shade of affection, whether it is first love, deep passion, unspoken longing, or even heartbreak.
In this post, we bring you Popular Love Poems in English from the internet and literary world. These poems are written by some of the greatest poets, and they continue to touch hearts across the globe.
Top 10 Love Poems in English
| No. | Poem Title | Poet | Style |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sonnet 18 | William Shakespeare | Classic Sonnet |
| 2 | How Do I Love Thee? | Elizabeth Barrett Browning | Sonnet |
| 3 | Love’s Philosophy | Percy Bysshe Shelley | Romantic Verse |
| 4 | She Walks in Beauty | Lord Byron | Descriptive |
| 5 | I Carry Your Heart With Me | E.E. Cummings | Modern Free Verse |
| 6 | A Red, Red Rose | Robert Burns | Song-like Poem |
| 7 | Annabel Lee | Edgar Allan Poe | Narrative/Lyrical |
| 8 | Meeting at Night | Robert Browning | Romantic Short Poem |
| 9 | When You Are Old | W.B. Yeats | Reflective |
| 10 | Touched by An Angel | Maya Angelou | Free Verse |
1. Sonnet 18 – Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?
Poet: William Shakespeare
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 ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
2. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Poet: 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.
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;
I 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.
3. I Carry Your Heart With Me
Poet: E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
4. She Walks in Beauty
Poet: Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
5. Love’s Philosophy
Poet: Percy Bysshe Shelley
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix forever
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?
6. Annabel Lee
Poet: Edgar Allan Poe
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.
7. When You Are Old
Poet: W.B. Yeats
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
8. A Red, Red Rose
Poet: Robert Burns
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
9. Touched by an Angel
Poet: Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
10. Love After Love
Poet: Derek Walcott
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. Give 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.
Conclusion: Love That Speaks in Verse
These 10 heartfelt poems show that love has many forms — soft, passionate, eternal, and even painful. Yet all of them are beautiful. Whether you’re in love, reminiscing about it, or longing for it, poetry helps you feel love in ways beyond words.
