Love Professed: 10 Short And Sweet Poems Of The 19th Century

Some of the most brilliant yet romantic writers, poets, and composers of the 19th century penned their profound feelings, beliefs, and thoughts about the most sought after and cherished emotion and state of being. Their insightful proclamations of affection are revealed through these poems and excerpts that can warm the heart and inspire the reader to reflect on how they perceive, give, and receive love. It’s the most powerful yet natural gift we all possess and it is ours to live, expand, and share internally and with others. Let love be…today and always.

1.) “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.”~ How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

2.) “The heart asks pleasure – first And then, excuse from pain- And then, those little anodynes That deaden suffering; And then, to go to sleep; And then, if it should be The will of its Inquisitor, The liberty to die.” ~ The Heart Asks Pleasure – First by Emily Dickinson

3.) “Give all to love. Obey thy heart. Friends, kindred, days, estate, good fame, plans, credit, and the muse; nothing refuse.” ~ Give All to Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson

4.) “Love one another, but make not a bond of love. Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other’s cup, but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread, but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each of you be alone.” ~ Love One Another by Khalil Gibran


5.) “But our love it was stronger by far than the love of those who were older than we. Of many far wiser than we and neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.” ~ Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

6.) “Fast-anchor’d eternal O love! O woman I love! O bride! O wife! More resistless than I can tell, the thought of you! Then separate, as disembodied or another born, ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation, I ascend, I float in the regions of your love O man, O sharer of my roving life.” ~ Fast Anchor’d Eternal O Love! by Walt Whitman

7. “When you are old and grey and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book, and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep. How many loved your moments of glad grace, and loved your beauty with love false or true, but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.”~ When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats

8.) “To live of love, it is to know no fear. No memory of past faults can I recall. No imprint of my sins remaineth here. The fire of love divine effaces all. 
O sacred flames! O furnace of delight! 
I sing my safe sweet happiness to prove, in these mild fires I dwell by day, by night.
 I live of love!” ~ To Live Of Love by St. Therese of Lisieux

9.) “Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my immortal beloved. Be calm—love me today, yesterday, what tearful longings for you. You, you my life, my all farewell. Oh continue to love me, never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.”~ Immortal Beloved by Ludwig van Beethoven

10.) “With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done, for one is both and both are one in love. Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine’. Both have the strength and both the length thereof, both of us, of the love which makes us one.” ~ I Loved You First: But Afterwards Your Love by Christina Rossetti