Best Love Poems for a Girlfriend (2024)

To love and to be loved is a perfect feeling everyone would like to experience at any point in life. However, it is a tough call not everyone can take to express one’s feelings. It is when literature comes in aid to help a man express his love to their companions.

In literature, there are many poems where the poets have used succinct ways to express the loving sentiment of their love to their lady love/girlfriend.

Here, at PoemAnalysis, we have listed some of the most famous poems more suited to be recognized as best love poems for a girlfriend. These poems could help express during occasions like birthdays, valentine’s day, anniversaries, and others.

Song: To Celia by Ben Jonson

“Song: To Celia“, often titled with its first line “Drink to me only with thine eyes” by Ben Jonson is a poem about transcendent love. The poem speaks about the intensity of love he and his lady love have for each other. He wants to experience the transcendence of love by drinking with their eyes.

Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will pledge with mine;

(…)

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.

Explore more Ben Jonson poems.

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe

Written from the perspective of a passionate shepherd, the poem lists down the benefits the lovers could enjoy in the countryside. Being a man in love, the speaker invites his beloved to be with him by promising her all the luxuries and the pleasure they would have. Being a pastoral poem, Marlowe describes the beauty of country life with the shepherd’s offer to his love.

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove,

That Valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

(…)

The Shepherds’ 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.

Discover more Christopher Marlow poems.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne

As the title suggests, the poem indicates parting between the lovers. Nevertheless, the speaker is assured that their bond is eternal and will be connected despite separation. The poem paints the picture of pure love and the emotions attached. For that same reason, he does not want his beloved to cry and defile their sacred love. Further, he highlights separation as an inevitable part of mortal life. He says that the separation is temporary and physical, for their souls will always be connected despite where they are. Donne artistically uses this metaphorical comparison and enchants the readers with his unlimited love for his beloved.

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say

The breath goes now, and some say, No:

(…)

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Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like the other foot, obliquely run;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

One Hundred Love Sonnets By Pablo Neruda

In his “One Hundred Love Sonnets“, Pablo Neruda tries to explain his love for his beloved. It looks like although he is aware of how deep he is in love, he could not comprehend it in the few lines and words of the poem. His love is not an average feel, for he could see the hidden beauty within the person he loves. He repeatedly uses “I love you”, which emphasizes conveying his emotions to the readers and the person of his interest.

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.

(…)

except in this form in which I am not nor are you,

so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,

so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by E.E. Cummings

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in], written byE.E. Cummings in his usual unorthodox style, is one of the best love poems. To the unknown lover, the speaker expresses the intensity of his love suggesting how his life revolves around the thoughts and memory of the person. According to the speaker, he carries his beloved’s heart within his own, which gives him the feeling that she is with him wherever he goes.

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 carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Explore more poetry from E.E. Cummings.

Always Marry An April Girl by Ogden Nash

Through ‘Always Marry an April Girl’ Ogden Nash suggests that Girls are unpredictable, like April. The month carries rough weather with dry, sunny, pristine, cold, stormy, and unenjoyable days. Still, they both are loved for what they are. Thus, the speaker declares that he loves her despite her unpredictability.

Praise the spells and bless the charms,

I found April in my arms.

April golden, April cloudy,

Gracious, cruel, tender, rowdy;

April soft in flowered languor,

April cold with sudden anger,

Ever-changing, ever true —

I love April, I love you.

Discover more Ogden Nash poems.

A Dream Girl by Carl Sandburg

Carl Sandburg’s ‘A Dream Girl‘ is not a poem addressed to his girlfriend by to the girl of his dream. The speaker speaks of the magnificent arrival of his dream girl using the metaphors dew, rain, breeze, and hill-flower. He hopes that he will meet this girl one day. At the same time, he is realistic as he also tells himself that it could just end as a dream.

You will come one day in a waver of love,

Tender as dew, impetuous as rain,

The tan of the sun will be on your skin,

The purr of the breeze in your murmuring speech,

You will pose with a hill-flower grace.

(…)

Yet,

You may not come, O girl of a dream,

We may but pass as the world goes by

And take from a look of eyes into eyes,

A film of hope and a memorable day.

Explore more Carl Sandburg poems.

A Valentine by Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe wrote this poem, ‘A Valentine‘ for Frances Sargent Osgood. It was originally titled “To Her Whose Name Is Written Below,” and has her name hidden within. Written in acrostic form, the poet encourages his beloved to find her name. For him, her name is like a treasure and a lucky charm. Though he refers to the “Gordian knot,” he explains how one can trace the name of her beloved in the poem.

For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,

Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,

Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies

Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.

(…)

Its letters, although naturally lying

Like the knight Pinto—Mendez Ferdinando—

Still form a synonym for Truth—Cease trying!

You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.

Discover more poetry from Edgar Allan Poe.

A Red, Red Roseby Robert Burns

‘O my Luve is like a red, red rose’ is a ballad that describes the speaker’s deep love for his beloved. Layered with metaphors and natural objects, the poem expresses the speaker’s love for his beloved. He compares his love to a newly sprung red rose in June and claims that his love will endure till the end of the world, or at least as long as he lives.

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.

(…)

And fare thee weel, my only love!

And fare thee weel awhile!

And I will come again, my love,

Though it were ten thousand mile.

Read more Robert Burns poems.

Love in a Life By Robert Browning

The speaker in the poem addresses a woman who has seemingly just mentioned the possibility that she might leave him (the first line is “Escape me?”). He insists that such escape is impossible since his pursuit of her is “much like a fate, indeed!” His life is devoted towards the “chase” of her, and no matter how little hope he has, he will continue after her. Even if his pursuit is interrupted by failure, he will “get up to begin again.”

Escape me?

Never—

Beloved!

(…)

No sooner the old hope drops to ground

Than a new one, straight to the selfsame mark,

I shape me—

Ever

Removed!

Explore more Robert Browning poems.

Longing by Matthew Arnold

“Longing” as a beautiful love poem expresses the speaker’s ardent love for his beloved. He wants her to appear in his dream every night, which would help him wipe out all the pains and sufferings of the day. As his desire for her presence becomes intense day by day, he wishes her to come in reality to soothe his pained heart of all worries and miseries.

Come to me in my dreams, and then

By day I shall be well again!

For so the night will more than pay

The hopeless longing of the day.

(…)

Come to me in my dreams, and then

By day I shall be well again!

For so the night will more than pay

The hopeless longing of the day.

Explore more Matthew Arnold poetry.

It is here By Harold Pinter

Written in 1990 by Harold Pinter to his beloved Antonia Fraser, ‘It is Here’ is a reminiscence of their first meeting. By repeatedly using “what”, the poet evokes curiosity to tell in the end that the sound hears their breath when they first met. The anxiety and the cheer felt by them is expressed through the speaker through this simple poem.

What sound was that?

I turn away, into the shaking room.

What was that sound that came in on the dark?

(…)

What did we hear?

It was the breath we took when we first met.

Listen. It is here.