Valentine's Day Poems
Curated by the Writory editorial team. Updated September 2026.
Quick answer: Read 8 of the best Valentine's Day poems, from Burns and Shakespeare to Barrett Browning and Dickinson. Full love poems to copy into a card or send today.
A valentine has one job: say it plainly enough that the other person believes you. The poems here have been doing that job for centuries, which is why they still turn up inside cards every February. All of them are in the public domain, so you can copy any one of them out in full.
Burns hands over a red, red rose and a promise measured in oceans. Barrett Browning counts the ways. Jonson asks for nothing but a look, Shelley argues that the whole world is kissing so you two may as well join in, and Dickinson wants the wild nights.
If you only need a few lines, start with Hunt's 'Jenny Kissed Me' or Dickinson. If you want the full declaration, Sonnet 43 has never been beaten.
A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns · Romantic
O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve 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 luve 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,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.
The folk-song plainness that every later love poem has quietly tried to steal.
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning · Victorian · Sonnet
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.
The most quoted love poem in English, and it earns it: love counted out loud, all the way past death.
Song To Celia - II
Ben Jonson · Renaissance · Song
Drink to me only with thine eyes,
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine.
I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
Not so much honouring thee
As giving it a hope, that there
It could not withered be.
But thou thereon didst only breathe,
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows, and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee.
You have hummed the first line without knowing it was four hundred years old.
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
William Shakespeare · Elizabethan · Sonnet
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.
A compliment that kept its promise. She is still alive here, four centuries on, because the poem is.
Love's Philosophy
Percy Bysshe Shelley · Romantic
The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the Ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and 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 is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?
A flirtation dressed up as natural law: everything in the world embraces, so why not you and me?
Wild nights - Wild nights!
Emily Dickinson · American
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!
Twelve lines of pure velocity. Dickinson done with the compass, done with the chart.
Jenny Kissed Me
Leigh Hunt · Romantic · Rondeau
Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in!
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me.
Eight lines that turn one kiss into a lifelong victory over time. The perfect short valentine.
The Passionate Shepherd To His Love
Christopher Marlowe · Elizabethan
Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That hills and valleys, dales and fields,
And all the craggy mountain yields.
There we will sit upon the rocks,
And see the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.
And I will make thee beds of roses,
With a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;
A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;
A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love.
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.
All coral clasps and beds of roses. Young love making its whole case out of what it promises to give.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a short valentine poem?
Leigh Hunt's 'Jenny Kissed Me' is eight lines and fits any card. Emily Dickinson's 'Wild nights - Wild nights!' is twelve lines of pure feeling for a bolder valentine.
What is the most romantic poem for Valentine's Day?
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'How Do I Love Thee?' is the classic full declaration. Burns's 'A Red, Red Rose' says the same thing in folk-song plainness, and either one still lands.
Can I copy these poems into a Valentine's Day card?
Yes. All eight poems are in the public domain, so you can write any of them out in full. Naming the poet under the last line is a nice touch and costs you nothing.
How do I write my own valentine poem?
Start from one true detail about the person instead of the word love. Keep it under twelve lines, end on the plainest sentence you can bear, and if you are proud of it, enter it in Writory's free monthly poetry contest.
How to write a love poem
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