Romantic Poems For Her

It's no secret that many women love poetry, so even if you don't have an anniversary or Valentine's day coming up, it's a good idea to keep some romantic poems for her in your back pocket. Incorporating these poems into special events can show your wife or girlfriend how much you care for her. And it's not a bad idea to try and look smart for her from time to time either. If you're looking for some romantic poems (you know, the ones that are a little more impressive than "Roses are red..."), check out this list of the five best romantic poems for your lady.

1. "Sonnet XV," by William Shakespeare. This is a classic. In this poem, Shakespeare thinks about the relationship of love and time. He realizes that, because life is temporary and short, love is also temporary. But this actually makes their love better because it makes them take advantage of the time that they do have together. Carpe diem!
2. "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," by John Donne. This poem is another classic. Donne's speaker in this poem is faced with the necessity of being away from his love for a time. He compares himself and his lover to a compass (the kind used for drawing circles, not for navigating). He is one leg of the compass and she is the other, and even though they are physically apart, they will remain connected to each other.
3. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love," by Christopher Marlow. This poem uses pastoral imagery (a rural setting, a rustic home, flocks of sheep) to imagine a perfect life for a couple in love. If only his love would come live with him, the speaker believes, all would be right in the world.
4. "I Like You Calm, as if You Were Absent," by Pablo Neruda. Don't be fooled by the title of this poem. In this poem (which comes from Neruda's collection "20 Poems of Love", a book you should own. Really.) the speakers tells his love that he likes for her to be very still, almost motionless. He likes this because his feelings are so strong that even the slightest movement she makes is enough to arouse feelings of intense passion.
5. "I like my body when it is with your body," by E. E. Cummings. Most people think of E. E. Cummings as the weird, experimental poet who didn't capitalize and who put punctuation wherever he felt like. He was that, but he also wrote some steamy love poems, like this one. Cummings uses language intuitively, so don't be surprised if it takes a couple readings to fully get his meaning. Despite that initial hurdle, this is one of the most beautiful poems about romance and sex in the English language.