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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.

So fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
   So deep in luve am I;...
From the magazine:
Marriage
By Lawrence Raab
Years later they find themselves talking
about chances, moments when their lives
might have swerved off
for the smallest reason.
                                     What if
I hadn’t phoned, he says, that morning?
What if you’d been out,
as you were when I tried three times
the night before?
                           Then she tells...
Altruism
By Molly Peacock
What if we got outside ourselves and there
really was an outside out there, not just
our insides turned inside out? What if there
really were a you beyond me, not just
the waves off my own fire, like those waves off
the backyard grill...
I Knew a Woman
By Theodore Roethke
I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one:
The shapes a bright container can contain!
Of her choice virtues only gods should speak,
Or English...
Tamer and Hawk
By Thom Gunn
I thought I was so tough,
But gentled at your hands,
Cannot be quick enough
To fly for you and show
That when I go I go
At your commands.

Even in flight above
I am no longer free:
You seeled me with your love,
I am blind to...
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
By 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...
- Love
- Classic Love
- Romantic Love
- Nature
- Summer
- Anniversary
- Engagement
- Weddings
- Valentine's Day
- Verse Forms
- Sonnet
- + 4 more
Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
By William Shakespeare
My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and...
From the magazine:
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
By 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...
The Ache of Marriage
By Denise Levertov
The ache of marriage:

thigh and tongue, beloved,
are heavy with it,
it throbs in the teeth

We look for communion
and are turned away, beloved,
each and each

It is leviathan and we
in its belly
looking for joy, some joy
not to be known outside it

two by two...
When ’Midst the Gay I Meet
By Thomas Moore
When ’midst the gay I meet
      That gentle smile of thine,
Though still on me it turns most sweet,
      I scarce can call it mine:
But when to me alone
      Your secret tears you show,
Oh, then I feel those...
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
By Christopher Marlowe
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,...
Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
By Richard Wilbur
The eyes open to a cry of pulleys,
And spirited from sleep, the astounded soul
Hangs for a moment bodiless and simple
As false dawn.
                     Outside the open window
The morning air is all awash with angels.

    Some are in bed-sheets, some are in blouses,
Some...
from Epipsychidion
By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Emily,
A ship is floating in the harbour now,
A wind is hovering o'er the mountain's brow;
There is a path on the sea's azure floor,
No keel has ever plough'd that path before;
The halcyons brood around the foamless...
Rabbi Ben Ezra
By Robert Browning
Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see...
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
By Edward Lear
I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
   In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
   And sang to a...
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.
I love thee to the level of...
To My Dear and Loving Husband
By Anne Bradstreet
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prizeprize Value thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or...
The Good-Morrow
By John Donne
I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I
Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?
But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?
Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?
’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies...
The Bait
By John Donne
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than...
Lovers' Infiniteness
By John Donne
If yet I have not all thy love,
Dear, I shall never have it all;
I cannot breathe one other sigh, to move,
Nor can intreat one other tear to fall;
And all my treasure, which should purchase thee—
Sighs,...

Quick Tags

Explore Poems: Engagement

A Red, Red Rose

From the magazine:
Marriage

Altruism

I Knew a Woman

Tamer and Hawk

Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun

From the magazine:
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

The Ache of Marriage

When ’Midst the Gay I Meet

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Love Calls Us to the Things of This World

from Epipsychidion

Rabbi Ben Ezra

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

To My Dear and Loving Husband

The Good-Morrow

The Bait

Lovers' Infiniteness

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:Marriage

poetry-magazineFrom the magazine:[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

From the magazine:
Marriage

From the magazine:
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]