Famous Poems About Love

Famous poems about love stir up emotions in a soul without regard to gender, race, country or origin, or socioeconomic status. Love is universal, as is heartbreak and the following famous poems about love state the case handsomely.

1. “Sonnets From the Portuguese 43: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 to 1861). “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” This one of the most, if not the most, famous poem about love in the world. This love sonnet by Elizabeth was first published in 1850, and is the 43^rd in a series of 44 sonnets. The sonnet was written by Elizabeth to her husband, Robert Browning who used the name, my little Portuguese, as a term of endearment. Lovers around the world owe a debt of gratitude to Elizabeth for saying so beautifully what the poetically challenged cannot.
2. “I carry your heart with me.” E. E. Cummings (1894 to 1962). “I carry your heart with me (I carry it in  my heart) i am never without it (anywhere  I go, my dear; and whatever is done  by only me, is your doing, my darling)” The poet of this famous love poem writes with simplicity that even when apart from his lover they are together, they are constants. It is truly two becoming one; separate but together, far but near, touching by not touching.
3. “One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII.” Pablo Neruda (1904 to 1973). “I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love I love you directly without problems or pride: 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 dream.” Neruda in this famous love poem speaks of the two lovers becoming one, so close that their thoughts have even become one. It brings to mind the idiom of a couple that has been together for so long they finish each others sentences.
4. “I Am Not Yours.” Sara Teasdale (1884 to 1933). “I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be Lost as a candle lit at noon, Lost as a snowflake in the sea.” This famous love poem is a lamentation of someone who cannot return love with the same intensity as the other person in the relationship – I am not yours, not lost in you, Not lost, although I long to be – but wants to fall deeply, and completely in love. Is being loved so ardently more important than being in love ardently? The title of this poem contains the answer.
5. “Heart, We Will Forget Him.” Emily Dickinson (1830 to 1886) “Heart, we will forget him, You and I, tonight! You must forget the warmth he gave, I will forget the light.” Alas, a famous love poem about a breakup, and the fight between the heart and mind to move on. The poet expresses a desire for the pain of the breakup to be over, and to become a thing of the past.  Maybe, the old adage that time heals all wounds is the only balm for a broken heart. 

So, there you have five famous poems about love in its various stages; being in love, breaking up, and searching for that love that ignites a fire within the soul.