Poetry books about love are popular because love poetry encompasses the full spectrum of human emotions. Love poems are about hope, fear, anger, joy, and excitement; they are about lust; they sometimes flatter, sometimes betray, sometimes seduce, and are sometimes jealous. Poetry books about love can also be about patience, kindness, and the search for truth. They can be about perseverance, sacrifice, and trust. They can be about the immense absence left by the beloved.
As a poet who has recently published her own poetry book about love: Relationship: A Poetry Book, I’ve been thinking about both classic and more recent poetry books about love. For over a decade now, I have been reading, writing, and thinking about poetry. While earning my M.F.A. from Columbia University, I read a range of poets and poetry books, including poetry books about love. What did I discover? What are some of the most popular poetry books about love (based on the best selling books of all time, and more recent poetry best sellers)? Let’s take a closer look below.
Poetry Books About Love: The Classics
What are some of the classic poetry books about love? Here are some of the most enduring. Check them out:
Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy & Vita Nuova
When Dante was writing the Vita Nuova, which was basically one of the first hybrid books of prose and poetry ever written, he not only included all the courtly love poems he had written to seduce all the ladies in Florence (Dante got around), but also used the book as an opportunity to declare his undying love for Beatrice. Unfortunately, Beatrice dies. At the end of the Vita Nuova, Dante declares that he will write what has never been written of any woman. It takes him years to do it, but when he does, he has written perhaps one of the most famous books of poetry ever written and one of the most famous poems–period: The Divine Comedy. Everyone reads the Inferno, but Dante followed up the Inferno with the Purgatorio and the Paradiso. If you just read the Inferno, you’ll most likely miss the fact that you’re reading a love poem. Beatrice is a passing mention in the opening cantos (basically, she sends her dead buddy, Virgil to help Dante get through hell), but if you really want to see Dante’s undying love for Beatrice, you’ll have to read on. Dante has to pass through hell to see Beatrice, but he doesn’t get to see Beatrice at the end of the Inferno. All we get at the Inferno’s end is the devil. To get to one of the most romantic scenes in all of poetry, you’ll have to read the Purgatorio through to the end, and if you want to see Dante spend time with Beatrice, read on to the Paradiso. In writing about his love for Beatrice, Dante explores all the ways that love can go wrong (basically the themes of the Inferno and the Purgatorio), but he also explores all the ways love can go right. These are stunning poetry books about love, undying.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnets
William Shakespeare’s sonnets offer some of the most classic love poems of all time. The best part is that they explore the full range of human emotions. Basically, the thesis of all these poems is this: if you want your love to really live forever, you need to have a kid. Your child will carry the legacy of your love forward because people grow old and get ugly. But, more than that, Shakespeare questions some of the cliches about the need for the lover to be perfect (see sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun.”)
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda’s love poetry is stunning. If you can read the originals in Spanish, that would be best, but even in translation, the plainspoken truth rings through these exquisite poems about love. “Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines” is probably the best poem about heartbreak ever written. The bare simplicity of the language, the purity of thought, and the immense weight of the man’s heartbreak is enough to make you want to cry yourself to sleep.
Sonnets from the Portuguese and Other Poems, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
If you’ve ever read the famous poem that starts “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways?” you’ve read Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It’s probably the most famous love poem ever written. Need I say more?
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho, translated by Anne Carson
Anne Carson is one of our best living poets. Anyone who reads Carson knows that she is steeped in the classics. Sappho’s poetry dates back to the seventh century B.C. Mostly the poems exist in fragments, with Columbia College noting that only about 40 fragments of her poetry survive. Sappho is known for her poetry written to other women, leading many to write that she was the first lesbian poet, but we know nothing about her life, save the few fragments that remain. Sappho is one of the first true love poets and one of the first legendary female poets to write lasting lyrics.
About the Writer
Janice Greenwood is a writer, surfer, and poet. She holds an M.F.A. in poetry and creative writing from Columbia University.