Valentine’s Day is a lover’s holiday with some interesting origins. You may enjoy poems for Valentine’s Day? Or flowers? Heart-shaped candy? Watching eclectic films together? Music? Dinner? A night walk under the stars?
A few things I love about the day are that it is an opportunity for a craft activity with my son and a good excuse to show some gratitude toward my husband. I like to keep things simple, but men, if you are looking for gift ideas for your loved ones — you can’t go wrong taking a woman to a book store. That’s where all the good poems live. Perhaps you can find some good poems for Valentine’s Day.
6 poems for Valentine’s Day
1. ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)’ 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 gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest 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. ‘It Is Here‘ by Harold Pinter
(for A)
What sound was that?
I turn away, into the shaking room.
What was that sound that came in on the dark?
What is this maze of light it leaves us in?
What is this stance we take,
To turn away and then turn back?
What did we hear?
It was the breath we took when we first met.
Listen. It is here.
3. ‘Falling Stars‘ by Rainer Maria Rilke
Do you remember still the falling stars
that like swift horses through the heavens raced
and suddenly leaped across the hurdles
of our wishes—do you recall? And we
did make so many! For there were countless numbers
of stars: each time we looked above we were
astounded by the swiftness of their daring play,
while in our hearts we felt safe and secure
watching these brilliant bodies disintegrate,
knowing somehow we had survived their fall.
4. ‘Love is a Place’ By E.E. Cumings
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skilfully curled)
all worlds
5. ‘Habitation‘ By Margaret Atwood
Marriage is not
a house, or even a tent
it is before that, and colder:
the edge of the forest, the edge
of the desert
the unpainted stairs
at the back, where we squat
outdoors, eating popcorn
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived
this far
we are learning to make fire
6. ‘Immortals at the Magpie Bridge’ by Qin Guan (Song Dynasty)
Clouds float like works of art,
Stars shoot with grief at heart,
Across the Milky Way the Cowherd meets the Maid.
When Autumn’s Golden Wind embraces Dew of Jade,
All the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.
Their tender love flows like a stream,
Their happy date seems but a dream,
How can they bear a separate homeward way?
If love between both sides can last for aye,
Why need they stay together night and day?
I hope you enjoy these poems for Valentine’s Day. Wishing you all an uplifting day this Valentine’s Day!
