Heat Up Your Valentine's Day--with Poetry!


By Paulette Beete
Painted image of heart with text "Love Poems"
Image of heart by Flickr user photosteve101
Get all tongue-tied around your crush? Can't find the right words to tell your beloved how much you care? Well, we have a poem for that! We can't guarantee the results, but we can promise that you just might fall in love with poetry, which is one date that never breaks up with you.
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. -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
You can find the full text of Sonnets from the Portugese 43 here.
You can read the full text of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese 43" here. 
Text from Pablo Neruda's One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII \"I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
Find the full text of Pablo Neruda "One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII" here. 
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) by ee cummings
You can read the full text of ee cummings' "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] here.
“…I love to kiss/the pictures in your skin. They’ll last until/you’re seared to ashes; whatever persists/or turns to pain between us,…” – Kim Addonizio
Read the full text of Kim Addonizios "First Poem for You" here.
Lines from To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet: I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense
Find the full text of Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and Loving Husband" here.
Visit Poetry Out Loud to browse more poems of love or anything else you're in the mood for. (Credits for background images: Image 1 by Flickr user Luke Hayfield; Image 4 by Flickr user darwin Bell; Image 6 by Flickr user sweethaa)

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