60+ Beautiful Short Love Poems from Famous and Modern Poets

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Romantic & timeless poetry to share with your soulmate

Co-authored by Alicia Cook and Bertha Isabel Crombet, PhD

Last Updated: July 21, 2025 Fact Checked

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For Her

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For Him

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Love Lost

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Deep Poems

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Sweet Poems

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Classic Poems

Poetry comes in many shapes, sizes, and lengths. Homer wrote sweeping epics, like The Iliad and The Odyssey, while Bashō wrote iconic haikus that only spanned 3 lines. When it comes to love, however, many poets prefer to keep their sentiments short and sweet, choosing to describe a single moment in time, their lover’s appearance, or the simple joy that they experience being with this other person. If you’re looking for short love poems that are sure to woo your spouse, warm a friend’s heart, or make your mom tear up, keep reading!

Section 1 of 6:

Short Love Poems for Her

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It was your ideato park and watch the elephantsswaying among the treeslike royaltyat that make-believe safarinear Laguna.I didn’t know anything that bigcould be so quiet.And once, you stoppedon a dark desert roadto show me the starsclimbing over each otherRiotouslylike insectslike an orchestrathrashing its waythrough time itselfI never saw light that wayagain.
2
From “Married Love" by Guan DaoshengYou and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share a single coffin.^{[1]
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3
From “To You” by Kenneth KochI love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart.
4
From “Having a Coke With You” by Frank O’HaraI look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together for the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me.^{[2]
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5
“Love Poem: Centaur” by Donika KellyNothing approaches a field like me. Hard
gallop, hard chest – hooves and mane and flicking
tail. My love: I apprehend each flower,
each winged body, saturated in a light
that burnishes. I would make a burnishing
of you, by which I mean a field in flower,
by which i mean, a breaching – my hands
making an arrow of themselves, rooting
the loosened dirt. I would make for you
the barest of sounds, wing against wing,
there, at the point of articulation. Love,
I pound the earth for you. I pound the earth.^{[3]
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6
From Sappho’s fragmentsAs a wind in the mountains
assaults an oak,
Love shook my breast.
7
“Love Poem” by Dorothea GrossmanIn a lightning bolt
of memory,
I see our statue of Buddha
(a wedding gift from Uncle Gene)
which always sat
on top of the speaker cabinet.
When a visitor asked,
“So, does Buddha like jazz?”
you said, “I hope so.
He’s been getting it up the a**
for a long time.”

Section 2 of 6:

Short Love Poems for Him

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Close your eyes and think of me
Close your eyes and try to see
Our hearts together and what could be
Our love forever as destiny.^{[4]
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2
“When You Come” by Maya AngelouWhen you come to me, unbidden,
 Beckoning me 
To long-ago rooms, 
Where memories lie.
Offering me, as to a child, an attic, 
Gatherings of days too few. 
Baubles of stolen kisses. 
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
 Trunks of secret words,
 I cry.
3
“Wild Nights –Wild Nights” by Emily DickinsonWild 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!^{[5]
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4
“For him” by Rupi KaurNo,
it won’t
be love at
first sight when
we meet it’ll be love
at first remembrance
‘cause i’ve recognized you
in my mother’s eyes
when she tells me,
marry the type of man you’d want to raise your son to be like.
5
From “Habitation” by Margaret Atwoodat the back where we squat
outside, eating popcorn
the edge of the receding glacier
where painfully and with wonder
at having survived even
this far
we are learning to make fire.
6
From “State Bird’ by Ada LimonBut, love, I’ll concede this:
whatever state you are, I’ll be that state’s bird,
the loud, obvious blur of song people point to
when they wonder where it is you’ve gone.
7
From Sappho’s fragmentsI was so happy
Believe me, I
prayed that that
night might be
doubled for us.
8
From “March” by Mary OliverSomething touched, me lightly, like a knife-blade.
I felt I was bleeding, though just a little, a hint.
Inside I flared hot, then cold. I thought of you.
Whom I love madly.

Section 3 of 6:

Short Poems About Love Lost

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Your absence has gone through meLike thread through a needle.Everything I do is stitched with its color.
2
Haiku By BashōHas it returned,
the snow
we viewed together?^{[6]
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3
“The Kiss” by Sara TeasdaleI hoped that he would love me, 
And he has kissed my mouth, 
But I am like a stricken bird 
That cannot reach the south. 
For though I know he loves me, 
Tonight my heart is sad; 
His kiss was not so wonderful 
As all the dreams I had.
4
“I have to tell you” by Dorothea GrossmanI have to tell you,
there are times when
the sun strikes me
like a gong,
and I remember everything,
even your ears.
5
From “Unspeakable” by Sharon OldsI want to say to him, now, What
was it like to love me—when you looked at me,
what did you see? When he loved me, I looked
out at the world as if from inside
a profound dwelling, like a burrow, or a well, I’d gaze
up, at noon, and see Orion
shining—when I thought he loved me, when I thought
we were joined not just for breath’s time,
but for the long continuance,
the hard candies of femur and stone,
the fastness.^{[7]
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“It is not so much that I miss you” by Dorothea GrossmanIt is not so much that I miss you
as the remembering
which I suppose is a form of missing
except more positive,
like the time of the blackout
when fear was my first response
followed by love of the dark.
7
“Heart! We will forget him!” by Emily DickinsonHeart! We will forget him!
You and I – tonight!
You may forget the warmth he gave –
I will forget the light!
When you have done, pray tell me
That I may straight begin!
Haste! lest while you’re lagging
I remember him!^{[8]
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8
From “You Who Never Arrived” by Rainer Maria RilkeYou who never arrived
in my arms, Beloved,
who were lost
from the start,
I don’t even know what songs
would please you.
I have given up trying
to recognize you
in the surging wave of the next
moment.^{[9]
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9
From "Poem to First Love" by Matthew YeagerTo have been told “I love you” by you could well be, for me,
the highlight of my life, the best feeling, the best peak
on my feeling graph, in the way that the Chrysler building
might not be the tallest building in the NY sky but is
the best, the most exquisite spired, or the way that
Hank Aaron’s career home-run total is not the highest
but the best, the one that signifies the purest greatness.
So improbable!
10
From Sappho’s fragments It’s no use
Mother dear, I
can’t finish my
weaving
You may
blame Aphrodite
soft as she is
she has almost
killed me with
love for that boy.
11
From “Feared Drowned” by Sharon OldsComing closer,[the man] turns out
to be you – or nearly.
Once you lose someone it is never exactly
the same person who comes back.
12
From “Regret” by Troy JollimoreI’d like to take back my not saying to you
those things that, out of politeness, or caution,
I kept to myself. And, if I may
though this might perhaps stretch the rules Id like
to take back your not saying some of the things
that you never said, like I love you and Wont you
come home with me, or telling me, which
you in fact never did, perhaps in the newly
refurbished café at the Vancouver Art
Gallery as fresh drops of the downpour from which
wed sought shelter glinted in your hair like jewels,
or windshields of cars as seen from a plane
that has just taken off or is just coming in
for a landing, when the sun is at just the right angle,
that try as you might, you could not imagine
a life without me.^{[10]
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From “Frida Kahlo to Marty McConnell” by Marty McConnellyou loved a man
with more hands than a parade
of beggars, and here you stand. heart
like a four-poster bed. heart like a canvas.
heart leaking something so strong
they can smell it in the street.^{[11]
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14
From “Ashes of Life” by Edna St. Vincent MillayLove has gone and left me and the days are all alike;
Eat I must, and sleep I will,—and would that night were here!
But ah!—to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!
Would that it were day again!—with twilight near!
Love has gone and left me and I don’t know what to do;
This or that or what you will is all the same to me;
But all the things that I begin I leave before I’m through,—
There’s little use in anything as far as I can see.
15
From “If You Forget Me” by Pablo NerudaYou know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me,
I shall stop loving you little by little.^{[12]
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16
From “Time does not bring relief; you all have lied” By Edna St. Vincent MillayTime does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide.
17
From "Love is a fire that burns unseen" by Luís Vaz de CamõesLove is a fire that burns unseen,
a wound that aches yet isn’t felt,
an always discontent contentment,
a pain that rages without hurting.
18
From "[love is more thicker than forget]" by e.e. cummingslove is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail.
19
“Flirtation” by Rita DoveAfter all, there’s no need
to say anything
at first. An orange, peeled
and quartered, flares
like a tulip on a wedgewood plate
Anything can happen.
Outside the sun
has rolled up her rugs
and night strewn salt
across the sky. My heart
is humming a tune
I haven’t heard in years!
Quiet’s cool flesh—
let’s sniff and eat it.
There are ways
to make of the moment
a topiary
so the pleasure’s in
walking through.^{[13]
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20
From “Before You Came” by Faiz Ahmad FaizThe sky is a shirt wet with tears,
the road a vein about to break,
and the glass of wine a mirror in which
the sky, the road world keep changing.
Don’t leave now that you’re here—
Stay. So the world may become like itself again:
so the sky may be the sky,
the road a road,
and the glass of wine not a mirror, just a glass of wine.
21
“A Pity, We Were Such a Good Invention” By Yehuda AmichaiThey amputated
Your thighs off my hips.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all surgeons. All of them.
They dismantle us
Each from the other.
As far as I'm concerned
They are all engineers. All of them.
A pity. We were such a good
And loving invention.
An aeroplane made from a man and wife.
Wings and everything.
We hovered a little above the earth.
We even flew a little.^{[14]
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Section 4 of 6:

Deep Love Poems

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There was a woman
I made love to and I remembered how, holding
her small shoulders in my hands sometimes,
I felt a violent wonder at her presence
like a thirst for salt, for my childhood river
with its island willows, silly music from the pleasure boat,
muddy places where we caught the little orange-silver fish
called pumpkinseed. It hardly had to do with her.Longing, we say, because desire is fullof endless distances. I must have been the same to her.
2
From “A Pretty Song” by Mary OliverFrom the complications of loving you
I think there is no end or return.
No answer, no coming out of it.
Which is the only way to love, isn’t it?
This isn’t a playground, this is
earth, our heaven, for a while.
3
“What I Didn’t Know Before” by Ada Limonwas how horses simply give birth to other
horses. Not a baby by any means, not
a creature of liminal spaces, but already
a four-legged beast hellbent on walking,
scrambling after the mother. A horse gives way
to another horse and then suddenly there are
two horses, just like that. That’s how I loved you.
You, off the long train from Red Bank carrying
a coffee as big as your arm, a bag with two
computers swinging in it unwieldily at your
side. I remember we broke into laughter
when we saw each other. What was between
us wasn’t a fragile thing to be coddled, cooed
over. It came out fully formed, ready to run.^{[15]
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From “Love at First Sight” by They’re both convinced
that a sudden passion joined them.
Such certainty is beautiful,
but uncertainty is more beautiful still.
Since they’d never met before, they’re sure
that there’d been nothing between them.
But what’s the word from the streets, staircases, hallways—
perhaps they’ve passed by each other a million times?
5
From “First Kiss” By Kim Addoniziono, this was the crowning
moment, this giving of herself, knowing
she could show me how helpless
she was—that’s what I saw, that night when you
pulled your mouth from mine and
leaned back against a chain-link fence,
in front of a burned-out church: a man
who was going to be that vulnerable,
that easy and impossible to hurt.
6
From “You Are the Penultimate Love of My Life” By Rebecca HazeltonI want to spend
a lot but not all of my years with you.
We’ll talk about kids
but make plans to travel.
I will remember your eyes
as green when they were gray.
Our dogs will be named For Now and Mostly.
Sex will be good but next door’s will sound better.
There will be small things.
I will pick up your damp towel from the bed,
and then I won’t.
I won’t be as hot as I was
when I wasn’t yours.
7
“Morning Love Poem” by Tara SkurtuDreamt last night I fed you, unknowingly,
something you were allergic to.
And you were gone, like that.
You don’t have even a single allergy, but still. The dream cracked. Cars nosedived
off snow banks into side streets. Sometimes dreams slip poison, make the living
dead then alive again, twirling in an unfamiliar room.
It’s hard to say I need you enough.
Today I did. Walked into your morning shower fully clothed. All the moments
we stop ourselves just because we might feel embarrassed or impractical, or get wet.^{[16]
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8
From “Love Elegy in the Chinese Garden, with Koi” by Nathan McClainI missed what it was to be so dumb
as those koi. I like to think they’re pure,
that that’s why even after the boy’s palms were empty,
after he had nothing else to give, they still kissed
his hands. Because who hasn’t done that—
loved so intently even after everything
has gone? Loved something that has washed
its hands of you? I like to think I’m different now,
that I’m enlightened somehow,
but who am I kidding? I know I’m like those koi,
still, with their popping mouths, that would kiss
those hands again if given the chance. So dumb.
9
From "I think I should have loved you presently" by Edna St. Vincent MillayI think I should have loved you presently,
And given in earnest words I flung in jest;
And lifted honest eyes for you to see,
And caught your hand against my cheek and breast;
And all my pretty follies flung aside
That won you to me, and beneath you gaze.^{[17]
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10
From “Try to Praise the Mutilated World” by Adam ZagajewskiYou should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
11
From “We Have Not Long to Love” By Tennessee WilliamsWe have not long to love.
Light does not stay.
The tender things are those
we fold away.
Coarse fabrics are the ones
for common wear.
In silence I have watched you
comb your hair.
Intimate the silence,
dim and warm.
I could but did not, reach
to touch your arm.
I could, but do not, break
that which is still.

Section 5 of 6:

Sweet Love Poems

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O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melody
That’s sweetly played in tune.
So 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.^{[18]
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2
From “Sonnet 43” by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningHow 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.
3
From “Filling Spice Jars as Your Wife” by Kai CogginI have all my doors and windows open to you
and you have come all the way inside,
sat down at the table of my deepest desires
and lit a fire to warm us both,
the wind blowing through the house,
the rain gently giving way
to turmeric sunrise
and you, darling.
4
From “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne BradstreetIf ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.^{[19]
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“i love you to the moon &” by Chen Chennot back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of
queer zest & stay up
there & get ourselves a little
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden
with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean
i was already moonlighting
as an online moonologist
most weekends, so this is the immensely
logical next step, are you
packing your bags yet, don’t forget your
sailor moon jean jacket, let’s wear
our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter,
queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other
(so good) on the moon, let’s love
the moon
on the moon.
6
From “When You Are Old” By William Butler YeatsWhen you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.
7
From “After Making Love in Winter” by Sharon OldsWe have come to the end of questions,
you run your palm, warm, large,
dry, back along my face over and
over, over and over, like God
putting the finishing touches on, before
sending me down to be born.
8
From "I Love You" by Ella Wheeler WilcoxI love your lips when they’re wet with wine
And red with a wild desire;
I love your eyes when the lovelight lies
Lit with a passionate fire.
I love your arms when the warm white flesh
Touches mine in a fond embrace;
I love your hair when the strands enmesh
Your kisses against my face.
9
From “The Orange” by Wendy CopeAt lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange, it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park.
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all the jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.^{[20]
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Section 6 of 6:

Classic Love Poems

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I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.^{[21]
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From “Love Comes Quietly” by Robert CreeleyLove comes quietly,
finally, drops
about me, on me,
in the old ways.
What did I know
thinking myself
able to go
alone all the way.^{[22]
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From “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in]" by e.e. cummingsi 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).
4
From “Love Sonnet XI” by Pablo NerudaI crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
5
From “Sonnet 130” by William ShakespeareI grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
6
From "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.^{[23]
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From “Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes” by Rainer Maria RilkeThis woman who was loved so much, that from one lyre
more mourning came than from women in mourning;
that a whole world was made from mourning, where
everything was present once again: forest and valley
and road and village, field, river and animal;
and that around this mourning-world, just as
around the other earth, a sun
and a silent star-filled sky wheeled,
a mourning-sky with displaced constellations–:
this woman who was loved so much . . .^{[24]
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8
From “Love’s Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix forever
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?
9
From “Love After Love” by Derek WalcottThe time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.