“How do I love thee?” sings Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s love sonnet from nearly two centuries ago. Classic love, like classic poetry, is timeless. So what better way to say “I do” in your Spring wedding than with a poem?
Show your spouse-to-be that your love will last the ages. Here are five classic love poems great for reading aloud with friends and family on that special day.
Here’s a classic wedding poem specifically from bride to groom…
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov’d 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.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
-Anne Bradstreet
…and one classic wedding poem from groom to bride.
There is a lady sweet and kind,
Was never a face so pleased my mind;
I did but see her passing by,
And yet, I’ll love her till I die.
Her gesture, motion, and her smiles,
Her wit, her voice my heart beguiles,
Beguiles my heart, I know not why,
And yet, I’ll love her till I die.
Cupid is winged and he doth range
Her country, so, my love doth change:
But change she earth, or change she sky
Yet, I will love her till I die.
-Thomas Ford
Here’s a couple of spring wedding love poems for either the groom or bride…
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)
i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
– e.e. cummings
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 everyday’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 a 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.
-Elizabeth Barrett Browning
…and finally, here’s a prayer for any member of the spring wedding party to recite.
Lord, behold our family here assembled.
We thank you for this place in which we dwell,
for the love that unites us,
for the peace accorded us this day,
for the hope with which we expect the morrow,
for the health, the work, the food,
and the bright skies that make our lives delightful;
for our friends in all parts of the earth.
Amen
-Robert Louis Stevenson
Let love be the over-riding theme of your spring wedding. After, all, love is in bloom in spring!
