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John Lundberg

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Love Poems Your Valentine Probably Hasn't Read

Posted: 02/13/11 11:08 AM ET

If you're still searching for the right words to use on Valentine's Day, and want to be a little more creative than, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," consider the following lesser-known love poems by Marvell, Rilke, Yeats, Lawrence, Neruda, and Bob Dylan. Your valentine probably hasn't read them, though all bets are off if she was an English major.

***

"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell

This is a good choice if you want to go with something classic that you'll never hear at a wedding. One can read the poem as an eloquent (17th Century) attempt to get a woman into bed -- the poem is structured as an argument to that effect, with passages like:

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime

But it's hard to resist the power of Marvell's language when he gets rolling. I love the stubborn, transcendent final couplet:

Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.

***

"Pathways" by Rainer Maria Rilke

You might know Rilke for his sprawling, passionate Duino Elegies. "Pathways," in contrast, is brief and considerably softer, with a heartwarming turn at the end.

***

"A Drinking Song" by William Butler Yeats

I wrote about this Yeats poem a few years back. It's one of my favorite love poems: understated, timeless, and just perfect.

***

"The Elephant Is Slow to Mate" by D.H. Lawrence

Yes, it's a love poem about elephants mating, but give it a chance. The poor elephants wait so long before they consummate their elephant love, waiting, Lawrence writes,

for the sympathy in their vast shy hearts
slowly, slowly to rouse

You'll be so won over by the beasts that you won't even wince when they "touch in flood" at the end. You might even be touched yourself.

***

"Love Sonnet XI" by Pablo Neruda

In contrast to Lawrence's poem, this Neruda sonnet is aggressive and brimming over with sensuality. It's another one that uses animal imagery well.

I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.

***

"Love Minus Zero/No Limit" by Bob Dylan

Technically, these are song lyrics, but Dylan is a talented poet. And if you or your significant other get a little jaded this time of year, you'll love lines like this:

My love she laughs like the flowers

Valentines can't buy her

***

Enjoy your Valentine's Day. And feel free to your own recommendations in the comments section below.

 
If you're still searching for the right words to use on Valentine's Day, and want to be a little more creative than, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," consider the following lesser-known lo...
If you're still searching for the right words to use on Valentine's Day, and want to be a little more creative than, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways," consider the following lesser-known lo...
 
 
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10:48 AM on 02/15/2011
Poetry is the most impressive sounds coming from the height,and that way the closest to God.I appreciate you for putting here some titles and poets,there are many to be unknown/some for their poetry originated from other countries and still not made known/.I join you and others with a song by one of our greatest poets Jovan Ducic
translation is taken from different source,not mine/i hope it will bring closer beautiful sentences in the glory of a woman.

A SONG TO A WOMAN

You are my moment and my shadow
and my glorious word in a silent sound.
my step and my wantonness
you are beautiful just as much as you are a secret
and truth as much as you are lust.
Stay unreachable,silent and distant
because the dream of happiness is more than happiness.
The history of heart is in the tear that falls
and soaks its love in vicious pain.
The only truth is in the dreams of your soul.
A kiss is the most wonderful encounter.
You are made of my visions
and your sunny gown of my dreams embroidered.
You were my enchanted thought,
a symbol of all vanities,prone to defeat and cold.
But you do not exist,and you never did.
Born in my silence and loneliness,
you shone on the sun of my heart,
because everything we kiss-we made it ourselves.

read also Branko Miljkovic,Aleksa Santic ,Desanka Maksimovic...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
April Pells
06:45 PM on 02/14/2011
Love Sonnet XI by Neruda has been my favorite poem since high school. It's so sexy.
02:07 AM on 02/14/2011
ah great to see neruda mentioned on here. i imagine today,
especially, a lot of us are invoking this beautiful poet...
here's one in its entirety translated by
mark eisner from The Essential Neruda,
published by city lights. he and the other folks at
Red Poppy are working on a documentary of him as well,
for all of you who love neruda; you can see what they
are up to at http://www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php
One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII

BY PABLO NERUDA

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.

I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
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
11:45 AM on 02/15/2011
I love this poem,it is known to me for a long time;thank you for sharing it with us
01:26 AM on 02/14/2011
This is a wonderful article. Thank you for sharing, very exciting.
Scarves Scarves
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Blodo
Time to build a better world
11:31 PM on 02/13/2011
Honestly, though, you just can't top Vogon poetry:

"Oh freddled gruntbuggley, thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee
Groop I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes
And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles, or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, see if I don't!"
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Candi Cj Dubord Jensen
Caution: I will most likey offend you. Often.
11:01 PM on 02/14/2011
"Honestly, though, you just can't top Vogon poetry"

You really can't!! LOL

fanned and faved!
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BlueZoo
Independent voter, Independent thinker!
05:51 PM on 02/13/2011
Wholly mine, wholly thine, wholly ours! ~ Beethoven
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naschkatze
A free man creates himself.
05:33 PM on 02/13/2011
I love those Dylan lyrics he wrote for his first wife. When they divorced, they fought like Korean heavyweights.
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french queen13
my beloved is mine and I am his
02:10 PM on 02/13/2011
John Donne's love poems. My favourite is "To His Mistress Going to Bed" but so many of them are exquisite.

Or just the poems my beloved writes to me ...
12:28 PM on 02/13/2011
Great suggestions, John. I love that HuffPo has a poetry ambassador. So many love poems, and one this English teacher loves is from e.e. cummings--"somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond." He has many other love poems as well. (This one was featured in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters if you remember.)