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Wedding poems perfect to use with your vows
These wedding poems will bring tears to your guest's eyes. Selected for you because they are beautiful and moving. When you weave them into your vows, you'll absolutely make your vows memorable. Use a line, or a stanza, or a whole poem. You'll add beauty, love, and charm to your vows.
| Short, powerful and memorable: Robert Browning | | Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be!
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| Roy Croft | I love you, not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you, not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out. I love you for putting your hand into my heaped-up heart and passing over all the foolish things you can't help dimly seeing there and for drawing out into the light all the beautiful belongings that no one else had looked quite far enough to find. I love you because you are helping me to make of the lumber of my life not a tavern, but a temple; out of the works of my every day not a reproach, but a song.... You have done it without a touch, without a word, without a sign. You have done it by being yourself. (We've included this in several categories, because it is one of the most memorable of the wedding poems.)
| | More of a quote than one of the wedding poems, but powerful: Antoine de St. Exupery | | Love does not consist in gazing in each other,
but of looking outward together in the same direction. | | From wedding poems by Sarah Bernhardt | Your words are my food, your breath my wine.
You are everything to me. | | Wedding poems and quotes are both used for lines you can weave into your vows. Jeremy Taylor | | Love is friendship set on fire. | | One of the greatest and best know wedding poems: How do I love thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning | 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 the 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. | | No list of wedding poems would be complete without considering: She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron | | She walks in Beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent. | | One of the anonymous wedding poems | In this book of my life, today I close one chapter and open another. With you, my love, I commit here and now to share all that I may be and all that I may become. From this day forward, may each page take note of our love. | | Another of the most familiar wedding poems: To What Shall I Compare Her? by Robert Louis Stevenson | To what shall I compare her, That is as fair as she? For she is fairer - fairer Than the sea. What shall be likened to her, The sainted of my youth? For she is truer - truer Than the truth. As the stars are from the sleeper, Her heart is hid from me; For she is deeper - deeper Than the sea. Yet in my dreams I view her Flush rosy with new ruth - Dreams! Ah, may these prove truer Than the truth. | | One of the most beloved wedding poems: It's all I have to bring to-day by Emily dickinson | It's all I have to bring to-day,
This, and my heart beside,
This, and my heart, and all the fields,
And all the meadows wide.
Be sure you count, should I forget, --
Someone the sum could tell, --
This, and my heart, and all the bees
Which in the clover dwell. | | From wedding poems by Emily Dickenson: I've got an arrow here | I've got an arrow here;
Loving the hand that sent it,
I the dart revere.
Fell, they will say, in 'skirmish'!
Vanquished, my soul will know,
By but a simple arrow | | Marriage Advice by Jane Wells (1886) | Let your love be stronger than your hate and anger.
Learn the wisdom of compromise,
for it is better to bend a little than to break.
Believe the best rather than the worst.
People have a way of living up or down
to your opinion of them.
Remember that true friendship
is the basis for any lasting relationship.
The person you choose to marry
is deserving of the courtesies
and kindnesses you bestow on your friends.
Please hand this down to your children and
your children's children. | | One of the most familiar wedding poems from the Rubaiyat by Omar Khyam | Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow! | | Another of the great wedding poems: I Love Thee by Eliza Acton | | I LOVE THEE.
I LOVE thee, as I love the calm
Of sweet, star-lighted hours!
I love thee, as I love the balm
Of early jes'mine flow'rs. I love thee, as I love the last
Rich smile of fading day,
Which lingereth, like the look we cast,
On rapture pass'd away. I love thee as I love the tone
Of some soft-breathing flute
Whose soul is wak'd for me alone,
When all beside is mute. I love thee as I love the first
Young violet of the spring;
Or the pale lily, April-nurs'd,
To scented blossoming. I love thee, as I love the full,
Clear gushings of the song,
Which lonely--sad--and beautiful--
At night-fall floats along, Pour'd by the bul-bul forth to greet
The hours of rest and dew;
When melody and moonlight meet
To blend their charm, and hue. I love thee, as the glad bird loves
The freedom of its wing,
On which delightedly it moves
In wildest wandering. I love thee as I love the swell,
And hush, of some low strain,
Which bringeth, by its gentle spell,
The past to life again. Such is the feeling which from thee
Nought earthly can allure:
'Tis ever link'd to all I see
Of gifted--high--and pure! | | Wedding poems by Sara Teasdale are truly joyous: Joy | I AM wild, I will sing to the trees,
I will sing to the stars in the sky,
I love, I am loved, he is mine,
Now at last I can die! I am sandaled with wind and with flame,
I have heart-fire and singing to give,
I can tread on the grass or the stars,
Now at last I can live! (If you use this, make sure you keep the second stanza.) | | She Walks in Beauty by Sara Teasdale | All remembered beauty is no more
Than a vague pelude to the thought of you--
You are the rarest soul I ever knew,
Lover of beauty, knightliest and best,
My thoughts seek you as waves
seek the shore,
And when I think of you I am at rest. SHE walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light 5
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face, 10
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,-
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent. | | Come Live with Me by Christopher Marlowe | Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields. And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals. And I will make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies.
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle; A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold. A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me, and be my love. The shephards' swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love. | | Guillaume de Machaut | I love you so much, truly, that one could sooner dry up the deep sea and hold back its waves than I could constrain myself from loving you. | | Meaningful wedding poems: Valentin Song by Robert Argyle Campbell | Dearest, let these roses
In their purity,
Be a present symbol
Of my love for thee. Underneath the blossom
Thorns are sure to grow;
Take heed lest you touch them,
They would pain you so! Ah! my faults like thorns are,
But cannot they be
Hidden 'neath the flower
Of my love for thee? | | Wedding poems from First Corinthians 13:4 | Love is patient; love is kind.
Love is not envious or boastful
or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way:
it is not irritable or resentful;
it does not rejoice in wrong doing,
but rejoices in truth.
Love bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things
And now faith, hope, and love abide,
and the greatest of these is love. | | Anonymous wedding poems perfect for using a single line or stanza | As we stand beside the ocean tide,
may our love always be as
constant and unchanging as these
never-ending waves that pour
beneath our feet, flowing endlessly
from the depths of the sea;
your love
came softly upon my heart,
just as the foam comes
softly upon the sand, and just as
there will never be a morning
without the ocean's flow,
so there will never be a day
without my love for you.
I pledge myself to you this day.
Our love will be as unchanging
and dependable as the tide;
as these waters nourish the earth
and sustain life, may my constant
devotion nourish and sustain you
until the end of time. | | Anonymous wedding poems perfect for using a single line or stanza | I promise to give you the best of myself
and to ask of you no more than you can give. I promise to respect you as your own person
and to realize that your interests, desires and needs
are no less important than my own. I promise to share with you my time and my
attention and to bring joy, strength and imagination
to our relationship. I promise to keep myself open to you,
to let you see through the window of my world
into my innermost fears and feelings,
secrets and dreams. I promise to grow along with you,
to be willing to face changes in order to keep our
relationship alive and exciting. I promise to love you in good times and bad,
with all I have to give and all I feel inside
in the only way I know how,
completely and forever. I take you as my partner, my friend and my love.
My hopes and dreams will now be intermingled
with yours. I will seek to balance my needs with
those of our community and family.
I will openly draw from our combined experience
and feelings in our search for truth and meaning.
I will strive for harmony through compromise
and understanding. I will be forgiving, but not complacent.
From this day forward, I take shared responsibility
for our marriage, family, community and myself,
regardless of our successes or failures. I promise to be faithful and true to you in mind,
body, and spirit; to cherish you and respect you;
and to be a source of comfort and encouragement,
free and bound by our love, as long as we shall live. | | Wedding poems by authors unknown | I love you. You are my best friend.
Today I give myself to you in marriage.
I promise to encourage and inspire you, to laugh with you,
and to comfort you in times of sorrow and struggle.
I promise to love you in good times and in bad,
when life seems easy and when it seems hard,
when our love is simple, and when it is an effort.
I promise to cherish you, and to always hold you in highest regard
These things I give to you today, and all the days of our life. Today I will marry my friend,
the one I will live with, dream with and love.
I take you to be my lifelong partner.
From this day forward I will cherish you,
I will look with joy down the path of our tomorrow's
knowing we will walk it together side by side, hand in hand and
heart to heart. | | Another of the anonymous wedding poems: From This Day Forward | From this day forward,
You shall not walk alone.
My heart will be your shelter,
And my arms will be your home. | | No list of wedding poems would be complete without: Today I Married My Best Friend by Rachel Elizabeth Cooper (b 1977) | Today I married my best friend,
Our bond complete, it hath no end,
We share one soul, we share one heart,
A perfect time - a perfect start. With these rings we share together,
Love so close to last forever,
This special day - two special hearts,
Let nothing keep this love apart. |
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wedding poems ideal for vows
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