What's your favourite LOVE poem? I need one urgently for a wedding next week.

[spidermama]

My brother wants my dd to read something at his registry office wedding but she says she'll only do it if I read too.

So .... I'm looking for suggestions for a good but fairly short poem or piece of prose about love.

TIA. x

Spidermama
I went to a wedding the other day when a little girl read out this. Was very sweet...

"Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."

Pooh thought for a little.
"How old shall I be then?"
"Ninety-nine." Pooh nodded.
"I promise," he said.

Still with his eyes on the world, Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's paw.

"Pooh," said Christopher Robin earnestly, "if I - if I'm not quite" he stopped and tried again "Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won't you?
"Understand what?"
"Oh, nothing." He laughed and jumped to his feet. "Come on!"
"Where?" said Pooh.
"Anywhere," said Christopher Robin.

gah, I was just going to post JuliaB's!

there is another Pooh reading, but I can't think what it is, there is also a poem that gets read but it may be a bit long

This one is good and not too soppy

Wendy Cope

At 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 my jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I'm glad I exist.

© Wendy Cope (1992), Serious Concerns, Faber & Faber.

Sorry to make you blub spidermama - I say that poem to ds1 and dd at bedtime sometimes and it does often bring a tear. FWIW, my sister blubbed most of the way through her reading at my wedding, but no one minded.

Depends on your definition of soppy rickshaw! I just read that one and have tears in my eyes, it's lovely! But then I find the oddest things emotional. Imagine having time over after completeing a to do list.... (but that's another thread)

Wine comes in at the mouth
and love comes in at the eye
that is all we shall know for truth
until we grow old and die
I lift the glass to my mouth
I look at you and I sigh

WB Yeats

or

I would die for you
my creed is love and you are its only tenet
You have ravish'd me away by a power I cannot resist
I cannot breathe without you

Keats in a letter to Fanny Brawne

or there's literally tons in Shakespeare!

Some of these are great. I love the orange one rickshaw. The Pooh one is fab julieab. I think dd might well go for that.

You're right wilbur I'll probably blub whatever we read together. It's a blubbing occasion. In fact some would consider it my duty to blub in recognition of the occasion.

(Note to self - water resistant mascara essential.)

I like the idea of a Shakey sonnet MT. I'm not sure my 7 year old would be so keen but dh doesn't see why not. He's obsessed with Shakespeare and always has been.

Greyriver - we had that at our wedding. Dh blubbed all the way through it.

What about using song lyrics to be different perhaps?

Could do meggy. Like what?

I had this.

To lead a better life I need my love to be here...

Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with a wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there's something there

There, running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but she doesn't know he's there

I want her everywhere and if she's beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share

Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there

I want her everywhere and if she's beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share

Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there

To be there and everywhere
Here, there and everywhere

How can you read it without starting to sing it though? I have the same problem with "Something".

Well I know what you mean but no problems at all with it.

I love it too HF and I m not a massive fan of The Beatles

I think saying good lyrics can be very effective if it's done well. It makes people listen afresh to words which may have lost there meaning through familiarity.

I'll try to think of some love songs whilst on the school run.

My ds is just watching Toy Story II and the 'When somebody loved me' song has just come on. (sniff)

It's all a bit past tens-ish though, which would be spectacularly inappropriate.

Ahhh SM you'll start me off, god knows what is wrong with me ATM I'm even crying at the cancer ads GFS!

PMSL, what a genius thing HF, wish I thought of that... I had a mantra....

ME NAN ON THE BOG....ME NAN ON THE BOG....

A la Ali G!