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

You mean 'My mum should be here' meggymoo? It gets me every time. DH told me she's an actress he's met fairly often though, so this helps me not to lose it altogether.

Great Argos catalogue tip HF.

oh god that Pooh one has just got me blubbing
I vote for the Dylan Thomas one. cracking writing and wonderful sentiment without sentimentality

John Betjeman's one about Miss Joan Hunter Dunn is ace, but perhaps too long, so here is a shorter one:

In a Bath Teashop

“Let us not speak, for the love we bear one another –
Let us hold hands and look.”
She, such a very ordinary little woman;
He, such a thumping crook;
But both, for a moment, little lower than the angels
In the teashop’s ingle-nook.

Wonderful stuff, just in case "In the ning nang nong" isn't quite love-y enough

YES SM, that's the one. Oh and those ....Miles is a quiet baby ones....
What is happening to me. I used to watch those ads and think awwww that must have been awful for his mum (the baby acting it) to see.

Sorry Spidey, didn't read your first post properly. Will have a look for some Shakey. 'This Ole house' is a goodun.

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 Barret Browning.

Something he may wish to bear in mind..

A Word to Husbands

To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.

Ogden Nash

Does anyone know that song 'Ten Good Years'?

We had TS Eliot at our wedding (not in person, alas. Or since he's dead, maybe that was a good thing)

A Dedication to my Wife

To whom I owe the leaping delight
That quickens my senses in our wakingtime
And the rhythm that governs the repose of our sleepingtime,
The breathing in unison

Of lovers whose bodies smell of each other
Who think the same thoughts without need of speech
And babble the same speech without need of meaning.

No peevish winter wind shall chill
No sullen tropic sun shall wither
The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only

But this dedication is for others to read:
These are private words addressed to you in public.
TS Eliot

That's lovely Orlando.

I thought I had settled on the Winnie the Pooh one as my dd does it so well but then I wondered if it wasn't a bit too British and restrained. (SIL-to-be is Brazilian). Also it might just go over people's heads (it would probably go over mine on the day).

Any other suggestions welcome.

I have 'The Nation's Favourite Love Poems' if you'd like it, I'd be happy to send it if you're still stuck!

Thanks fastasleep. Does anything spring to mind for you from that book? It has to be good for a seven year old to read so I'm avoiding 'thou hast thine' etc.

Let me go fish it out..

Haven't done any seranading in a while

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

We had this one at our wedding... Appropriate as we met in a bar when both drunk..

We had Rabbie at our wedding, but it only really works with the right accent!

O my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
O I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare the weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

It's the third verse that always gets me

Sorry that's probably pretty hopeless for a 7 year old... got carried away...

As it happens 2happy I was brought up in Scotland and used to have an Aberdonian accent. My brother was born there too so we'd be allowed this. It wouldn't work for my very southern dd though. It's an absolutely classic though isn't it?

I would have married him like a shot had he written that for me. (sniff).

When's the wedding? Time enough to coach dd in the right accent?!! It certainly is a classic, this whole thread has got me choked up!
(ps fit like?)

A red red rose is in here too lol... I could only find the nation's favourite poems...although I know I have love poems somewhere...

There is this cute one... the rest are a bit Shakespearean and hard to understand..

Lover's Philosophy
Percy Byshe Shelley

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in this world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle -
Why not I with thine?

See the mountain's kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother.

And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
WHat are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Hi Spidermama
Just found these. short and simple. Might suit?

I wrote your name in the sky,
but the wind blew it away.
I wrote your name in the sand,
but the waves washed it away.
I wrote your name in my heart,
and forever it will stay.

• Jessica Blade -

Eskimo Love Song
You are my husband, you are my wife
My feet shall run because of you
My feet dance because of you
My heart shall beat because of you
My eyes see because of you
My mind thinks because of you
And I shall love, because of you.

This is a good one and simple to read.

"Carry her over the water" by W.H. Auden

Carry her over the water,
And set her down under the tree,
Where the culvers white all day and all night,
And the winds from every quarter,
Sing agreeably, agreeably, agreeably of love.

Put a gold ring on her finger,
And press her close to your heart,
While the fish in the lake their snapshots take,
And the frog, that sanguine singer,
Sings agreeably, agreeably, agreeably of love.

The streets shall all flock to your marriage,
The houses turn round to look,
The tables and chairs say suitable prayers, And the horses drawing your carriage
Sing agreeably, agreeably, agreeably of love.

Love- it's what you have
that no-one else can touch
that carries you through the darkness
and warms you in the cold

Hope- the belief in that special person
The faith in the bond
What keeps you together
When all else falls apart

Dreams- the secret things you share
The life you build together
The path that begins today
The road that never ends

Personally I would run through the ceremony naked and screaming "DON'T DO IT!"

But that's just me!