Love poetry is as old as language. But some poems rise above the rest — the ones we quote at weddings, send in letters, carry in our heads for decades. Here are 15 of the best love poems ever written, with why each one matters.
1. Sonnet 18 — Shakespeare
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The poem that defines eternal love — "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this." See our full analysis.
2. Sonnet 116 — Shakespeare
"Let me not to the marriage of true minds / Admit impediments." Love as constant, unchanging, a fixed star.
3. Tonight I Can Write — Neruda
"I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too." The "sometimes" devastates. Neruda captures the uneven end of love. See our full analysis.
4. Sonnet 43 — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." The poem that invented the list of love.
5. A Red, Red Rose — Robert Burns
"O my Luve is like a red, red rose." Simple, direct, eternal. See our full analysis.
6. The Guest House — Rumi
"This being human is a guest house." Love as welcoming all of the beloved — including the dark parts.
7. Annabel Lee — Poe
Love that outlives death. Obsessive, undying. See our full analysis.
8. Wild Nights — Dickinson
"Wild Nights — Wild Nights! / Were I with thee." Dickinson's erotic, ecstatic love poem.
9. Sonnet XVII — Neruda
"I love you as certain dark things are to be loved, / in secret, between the shadow and the soul." Love as private, essential, beyond performance.
10. The Good-Morrow — Donne
"I wonder, by my troth, what thou and I / Did, till we loved?" Love as awakening.
11–15. More to Explore
Faiz's "Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat," Ghalib's "Ye Na Thi Hamari Qismat," Nizar Qabbani's love poems, Pablo Neruda's "If You Forget Me," and e.e. cummings's "i carry your heart." Each deserves a deep read.
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