February 14th, or Valentine’s Day, is a memorable day for couples all over the world.
The day to tell your significant other how much you love and adore them. And what better way to do that than with some passionate poetry? There’s nothing more romantic than knowing you’re cared for and appreciated. It’s the little things that matter, even on days as special as Valentine’s.
Sharing Valentine’s poetry with your significant others is a surefire way to make a great impression and set yourself up for success for the rest of the day. While sending your Valentine some passionate poetry via text isn’t a bad idea at all, it’s worth it to take the extra effort to pen down a poem yourself. The idea is to send your partner the message that you’re willing to take the time to do something special for them.
Of course, it’s not very easy to produce poetry for most of us, so we’ve compiled for you a catalog of the 37 best Valentine’s Day poems. You can use the poetry as is, or draw inspiration from the thought-provoking verses in our list to synthesize something yourself! People can tell when something has been made with love and passion, and writing is no exception to that.
Romantic Valentine Poems
1.) “Ditty”
You, rare as Georgia
snow. Falling
hard. Quick.
Candle shadow.
The cold
spell that catches
us by surprise.
The too-early blooms,
tricked, gardenias blown about,
circling wind. Green figs.
Nothing stays. I want
to watch you walk
the halls to the cold tile
bathroom—all
night, a lifetime.
– Kevin Young
2.) “New Face”
I have learned not to worry about love;
but to honor it’s coming
with all my heart.
To examine the dark mysteries
of the blood
with headless heed and
swirl,
to know the rush of feelings
swift and flowing
as water.
The source appears to be
some inexhaustible
spring
within our twin and triple
selves;
the new face I turn up
to you
no one else on earth
has ever seen.
– Alice Walker
3.) “You’re My Everything”
You’re the beauty in the sunrise,
The soft warmth shining in the trees.
Joyful lightness that’s in your eyes,
The slightest tingling from the breeze.
You’re birds singing on a spring day,
Beauty, peace, love and art…
My music, my love, my Monet.
You’re my joy, my muse, my heart.
– Jennifer D. Etheridge
4.) “Eternal Emotion”
As long as the birds are singing,
As long as the fish can swim,
As long as the sun keeps shining,
I will love you in the bright or dim.
As long as the wind keeps blowing,
As long as the ocean waves,
As long as the stars are shimmering,
You will have my heart enslaved.
As long as time keeps flowing,
As long as the sky is blue,
As long as planets are spinning,
My love will forever be with you.
– Mason C. Ford
5.) “First Love”
I ne’er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale as deadly pale,
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.
And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
– John Clare
6.) “My Promise”
If you were my rose, then I’d be your sun,
painting you rainbows when the rains come.
I’d change my orbit to banish the night,
as to keep you in my nurturing light.
If you were my world, then I’d be your moon,
your silent protector, a night-light in the gloom.
Our fates intertwined, two bodies in motion
through time and space, our dance of devotion.
If you were my island, then I’d be your sea,
caressing your shores, soft and gentle I’d be.
My tidal embrace would leave gifts on your sands,
but by current and storm, I’d ward your gentle lands.
If you were love’s promise, then I would be time,
your constant companion till stars align.
And though we are mere mortals, true love is divine,
and my devotion eternal, to my one valentine.
– Dan P. Brown
7.) “My First, My Last, My Valentine”
I’ve never imagined that there can be this day.
A day that love will find its way
Out of my heart and into your soul.
These feelings I have are beyond my control.
All my life I have waited patiently
For a goddess like you, so beautiful, so lovely.
Words can’t express the way I feel.
These feelings toward you are all for real.
You are the reason why I go on.
Eternity can’t separate this special bond.
This heart of mine is reserved for you.
Forever it is yours; this love is true.
I’ll be your first and you’ll be my last.
My world, my everything, till my time has passed.
I will always love you until the end of time.
MY LOVE, MY SWEETHEART, MY VALENTINE!
– Sokea Meas
8.) “Loving You”
Loving you is like eating bread dipped in salt,
like waking feverish at night
and putting my mouth to the water faucet,
like opening a heavy unlabeled parcel
eagerly, happily, cautiously.
Loving you is like flying over the sea
for the first time, like feeling dusk settle
softly over Istanbul.
Loving you is like saying “I’m alive.
– Nazim Hikmet
9.) “Valentine Gift”
On Valentine’s Day,
I’m thinking about
the special ways
you have made my life better,
the little things,
the not-so-little things…
your kindness,
the way you always listen
and pay attention to me.
You make my world
brighter and richer.
You’re a gift to me,
and I thank you
– Joanna Fuchs
10.) “Peanut Butter”
.. why shouldn’t
something
I have always
known be the
very best there
is. I love
you from my
childhood,
starting back
there when
one day was
just like the
rest, random
growth and
breezes, constant
love, a sand-
wich in the
middle of
day,
a tiny step
in the vastly
conventional
path of
the Sun. I
squint. I
wink. I
take the
ride.
– Eileen Myles
11.) “Another Valentine”
Today we are obliged to be romantic
And think of yet another valentine.
We know the rules and we are both pedantic:
Today’s the day we have to be romantic.
Our love is old and sure, not new and frantic.
You know I’m yours and I know you are mine.
And saying that has made me feel romantic,
My dearest love, my darling valentine.
– Wendy Cope
12.) “A Joy I Never Knew”
Have I told you, Valentine,
That I’m all wrapped up in you?
My feelings for you bring to me
A joy I never knew.
You light up everything for me;
In my heart you shine;
Illuminating my whole life,
My darling Valentine.
– Joanna Fuchs
13.) “Valentine Lover”
Heart beating fast.
Love that is supposed to last,
A day,
A lifetime…
You’re the wind to my mast,
The heartening blast,
Your love,
My Valentine…
They say that the roses are red
And violets are blue,
But there are no colors
When I am with you…
You’re the wind to my mast,
Love that is supposed to last,
Your love,
A lifetime…
– Parker C. Blair
14.) “You Are Who I Love”
You, selling roses out of a silver grocery cart
You, in the park, feeding the pigeons
You cheering for the bees
You with cats in your voice in the morning, feeding cats
You protecting the river You are who I love
delivering babies, nursing the sick
You with henna on your feet and a gold star in your nose
You taking your medicine, reading the magazines
You looking into the faces of young people as they pass, smiling and saying, Alright! which, they know it, means I see you, Family. I love you. Keep on.
You dancing in the kitchen, on the sidewalk, in the subway waiting for the train because Stevie Wonder, Héctor Lavoe, La Lupe
You stirring the pot of beans, you, washing your father’s feet
You are who I love, you
reciting Darwish, then June
– Arcaelis Girmay
15.) “Untitled”
I swear, since seeing Your face,
the whole world is fraud and fantasy
The garden is bewildered as to what is leaf
or blossom. The distracted birds
can’t distinguish the birdseed from the snare.
A house of love with no limits,
a presence more beautiful than Venus or the moon
a beauty whose image fills the mirror of the heart.
– Rumi
Passionate Valentine Poems
16.) “Come Slowly, Eden”
Come slowly, Eden
Lips unused to thee.
Bashful, sip thy jasmines,
As the fainting bee,
Reaching late his flower,
Round her chamber hums,
Counts his nectars—alights,
And is lost in balms
– Emily Dickson
17.) “I Wanna Be Yours”
I wanna be your vacuum cleaner
breathing in your dust
I wanna be your Ford Cortina
I will never rust
If you like your coffee hot
let me be your coffee pot
You call the shots
I wanna be yours
I wanna be your raincoat
for those frequent rainy days
I wanna be your dreamboat
when you want to sail away
Let me be your teddy bear
take me with you anywhere
I don’t care
I wanna be yours
– John Cooper Clarke
18.) “Recreation”
Coming together
it is easier to work
after our bodies
meet
paper and pen
neither care nor profit
whether we write or not
but as your body moves
under my hands
charged and waiting
we cut the leash
you create me against your thighs
hilly with images
moving through our word countries
my body
writes into your flesh
the poem
you make of me.
– Audre Lord
19.) “I Will Always Love You”
I desire you when splinters of light appear
And the dew lazily joins morning sky.
When arias, pining birds to mates sing,
I want the soothing softness of your kiss.
I desire you when the sun centers the sky
And shadows hide beneath the soles of feet.
When butterflies dance among petals white,
I want the sparkle of your smiling eyes.
I desire you as the moon welcomes the night
And skies are flooded with twinkling bright stars.
When candles flicker their last silent breath,
I then want to feel your sensuous touch.
– Richard M. Deets
20.) “Snowflake Kisses”
Upon the earth, the snow kisses.
Glittering flakes drop as the ice glistens
My soul has awakened, and now my heart listens.
In my mind your voice whispers.
When I close my eyes at night, I dream of you.
When I awake to the morning dew, I think of you.
Somehow, I feel in your arms is where I belong.
I’ve waited for someone like you for so long.
Now my heart beats with a happy rhyme.
Couldn’t have asked for a better Valentine
– Angela M. Torrence
21.) “Ask Me”
Do I really love you?
Look into my eyes.
The shine you see is the light of my soul.
Notice my smile,
how spontaneous and true!
My face in your presence,
my lips caress your name.
Can you not hear the hum of my body
responding to your nearness?
My heart keeps time.
Touch me,
I tremble.
Hold me,
I sigh.
Kiss me,
I melt.
Ask me,
I love you!
– Adriana Rajca
22.) “Close Close all night”
Close close all night
the lovers keep.
They turn together
in their sleep,
Close as two papers
in a book
that read each other
in the dark.
Each knows all
the other knows,
learnt by heart
from head to toes.
–Elizabeth Bishop
23.) “Wild nights – Wild Nights!”
Wild nights – Wild nights!
Were I with thee
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile – the winds –
To a Heart in port –
Done with the Compass –
Done with the Chart!
Rowing in Eden –
Ah – the Sea!
Might I but moor – tonight –
In thee!
– Emily Dickinson
24.) “Passing Time”
Your skin like dawn
Mine like musk
One paints the beginning
of a certain end.
The other, the end of a
sure beginning.
– Maya Angelou
25.) “acknowledgements”
… as long as i am a fact to you, death can do with me what she wants
my body, water, your body, a trail of hands carrying the river to the sea
i ink your name into my arm to fasten what is already there
i would love you even if you killed god
you made coming out feel like coming in from the storm
you are the country i bloody the hills for
you love me despite the history of my hands, their mangled confession…
– Danez Smith
26.) “LOVE”
Sublime cool breezes
Relieve, hot sultry moments.
Wax and wanes against the tide
Forgive, under soft moonlight.
Passes over us like a storm
Feel the pause of exhilaration.
Moving ripples in the stream
Hope, in the shallows of darkness.
Splendour of raindrops
Listen, to the moments lost.
Perpetuates plunge from the Jetty
Nurture, the joy of faith.
Plummet into the Abyss
Breathe, the rise and fall of emotion.
– Nicole M Nugent
27.) “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong”
Don’t be afraid, the gunfire
is only the sound of people
trying to live a little longer. Ocean. Ocean,
get up. The most beautiful part of your body
is where it’s headed. & remember,
loneliness is still time spent
with the world. Here’s
the room with everyone in it.
Your dead friends passing
through you like wind
through a wind chime. Here’s a desk
with the gimp leg & a brick
to make it last. Yes, here’s a room
so warm & blood-close,
I swear, you will wake—
& mistake these walls
for skin.
–Ocean Vuong
Thoughtful Valentine Poems
28.) “How Do I Love Thee?”
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 candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
– Elizabeth Barrett Browning
29.) “Things That Are Rare”
It is so easy to imagine your absence.
Maybe it is night, we are still handsome.
All the young are.
It is so easy. Another thing to be beautiful.
How gently the curtain falls back down
and the room is dark again, the season
of in-betweenities,
my eyes heavy, my lips numb.
Fingerprints on the unjacketed books.
Inside the collars
of the shirts in the open closet—
An affluent night.
You’ve touched everything in my small room.
– Richie Hofmann
30.) “Compatible Valentine”
On Valentine’s Day, I think about
The people who are dear,
How much they add to life’s delight
Whenever they are near.
You’ve always been a total joy,
Such pleasant company,
I very much appreciate
Our compatibility!
– Joanna Fuchs
31.) “Yours & Mine”
Through your lens the sequoia swallowed me
like a dryad. The camera flashed & forgot.
I, on the other hand, must practice my absent-
mindedness, memory being awkward as a touch
that goes unloved. Lately your eyes have shut
down to a shade more durable than skin’s. I know you
love distance, how it smooths. You choose an aerial view,
the city angled to abstraction, while I go for the close
exposures: poorly-mounted countenances along Broadway,
the pigweed cracking each hardscrabble backlot.
– Alice Fulton
32.) “Pleasant Thoughts of You”
Whenever likable people cross my mind,
I always have such pleasant thoughts of you.
You bring me so much happiness and joy;
Those who lift me up are very few.
On Valentine’s Day I want to tell you this:
Knowing you is an extraordinary pleasure;
Your caring heart is always quick to give;
You’re unique, a rare and very special treasure.
– Joanna Fuchs
33.) “[love is more thicker than forget]”
Close close all nightlove is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail
it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea
love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive
– E.E. Cummings
34.) “Valentine Treasures”
Valentine treasures are people who
have often crossed your mind,
family, friends and others, too,
who in your life have shined
the warmth of love or a spark of light
that makes you remember them;
no matter how long since you’ve actually met,
each one is a luminous gem,
who gleams and glows in your memory,
bringing special pleasures,
and that’s why this Valentine comes to you:
You’re one of those sparkling treasures!
– Joanna Fuchs
35.) “Love is Enough”
Love is enough: though the world be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,
Though the skies be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder,
And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over,
Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter:
The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.
– William Morris
36.) “Juke Box Love Song”
I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue busses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.
Take Harlem’s heartbeat,
Make a drumbeat,
Put it on a record, let it whirl,
And while we listen to it play,
Dance with you till day–
Dance with you, my sweet brown Harlem girl.
– Langston Hughes
37.) “Love Is”
Some people forget that love is
tucking you in and kissing you
“Good night”
no matter how young or old you are
Some people don’t remember that
love is
listening and laughing and asking
questions
no matter what your age
Few recognize that love is
commitment, responsibility
no fun at all
unless
Love is
You and me
– Nikki Giovanni
Summary
And there you go – 37 of the most romantic and passionate poems you can use to make your Valentine’s Day even more special. We hope you enjoyed the list and found the perfect poem to share with your significant other.
Send your loved ones beautifully handwritten poetry in the form of a gift card. Or, if you’re in the mood to be a little more daring, recite it for them in a romantic setting! A bold, personal expression of your feelings for them via poetry will undoubtedly leave your partner with butterflies.
for being you.
