On one of the most romantic days of your life—your wedding day—you naturally want to express the depth of your love for your partner. There are many ways to do this: speaking from the heart during a first look, writing heartfelt vows, or delivering a special toast at the reception. But if words don’t come easily, you’re not alone. While any sincere expression of love is meaningful, finding the perfect words can be challenging. Fortunately, poets have been capturing the essence of love for centuries. Even if you’re unsure what to say, these wedding poems can articulate your feelings beautifully.
A wedding poem can be the perfect solution to writer’s block. Use a line or two to inspire your vows or toast, or have a friend or family member read a poem during the ceremony for added impact. You might also include a poem after exchanging rings, just before the officiant pronounces you married. The key is choosing a poem that resonates with you, your partner, your love story, and the tone of your wedding. Consider the style you prefer: rhymed or free verse, classic or modern, nature-themed, sonnet, or haiku. The choice is entirely yours.
01. “She Walks in Beauty,” 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 mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired 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!BridesBrides
02. “A Wedding Toast,” James Bertolino
May your love be firm,
And may your dream of a life together
be a river between two shores
by day bathed in sunlight, and by night
illuminated from within. May the heron
carry news of you to the heavens, and the salmon bring
the sea’s blue grace. May your twin thoughts spiral upward
like leafy vines, like fiddle strings in the wind,
and be as noble as the Douglas fir.
May you never find yourselves back to back
without love pulling you around
into each other’s arms.
03. “Our Souls Are Mirrors,” Rupi Kaur
god must have kneaded you and i
from the same dough
rolled us out as one on the baking sheet
must have suddenly realized
how unfair it was
to put that much magic in one person
and sadly split that dough in two
how else is it that
when i look in the mirror
i am looking at you
when you breathe
my own lungs fill with air
that we just met but we
have known each other our whole lives
if we were not made as one to begin with
04. “Sonnet 116,” William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
05. “Having a Coke With You,” Frank O’Hara (Excerpt)
I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
06. “Love Song,” Rainer Maria Rilke
How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn’t touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn’t resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin’s bow,
which draws one voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.
07. “Slow Me Down, Lord!” Wilferd A. Peterson
Let me look upward
into the branches of the towering oak
and know that it is great and strong
because it grew slowly and well.
Slow me down, Lord,
and inspire me to send my roots deep
into the soil of nature’s enduring values
that I may grow towards the stars
of my greater destiny.
08. “In One Another’s Souls,” Rumi
The moment I heard my first love story
I started looking for you,
not knowing how useless that was.
Lovers don’t meet somewhere along the way.
They’re in one another’s souls all along.
09. “This Is Just to Say,” William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
10.”New Beginnings,” Barbara Crooker
May this be a day of new beginnings
the sun, like a fragrant apple; the summer air,
soft on your hands as the kiss of a child.
May berries melt like honey on your tongue.
May your heart rise in wonder
at the clouds drifting across the sky.
May the trails under your boots
be covered in pine quills,
let the leaves rain down
like memories
in the autumn of your heart.
May the snow beneath your skis
run as fast as watered silk,
may the cold air kiss your cheeks,
turn them red as summer’s roses.
May the rivers always flow
with their unexpected beauty,
the first freshets of snowmelt,
the rush of early spring. May you always walk in gladness
through whatever path or highway;
may you always walk within the golden circle of your love.
11.”Now Touch the Air Softly,” William Jay Smith
Now touch the air gently, step lightly, one, two…
I’ll love you till roses turn robin’s-egg blue;
I’ll love you until gravel is eaten as bread,
And lemons are orange, and lavender red.
Now touch the air softly, sweep lightly the room.
I’ll love you till windows are all of a room;
And the table is set, and the table is bare,
And the ceiling hangs in bottomless air.
I’ll love you till heaven removes all the stars from its coat,
And the moon sails away in a glass-bottom boat;
And Orion steps down like a river below,
And the earth is ablaze, and the oceans aglow.
So touch the air gently, and sweep the broom high.
We will dust off the mountains, and polish the sky:
And I’ll love you as long as the plow cuts the row,
As long as forever is ever, and ever is now.
12. “In Your Light I Learn How to Love,” Rumi
In your light, I find the way to love.
In your beauty, I learn to write poetry.
You dance inside my chest, invisible,
but sometimes I see you—
and in that seeing,
my art is born.
13. “I Saw Two Clouds at Morning,” John G. C. Brainard
I saw two clouds at morning,
glowing with dawn’s soft light,
and in that fresh new sky they floated on,
then slowly merged to one;
and I thought that morning sky was blessed,
as it drifted gently west.
I saw two summer streams
move gently to their meeting,
and calmly joined, they carried on,
peaceful in their greeting;
they wound through grassy banks serene,
as eddies danced between.
So may your journey be,
calm, united, and complete;
like streams in summer, hearts that meet
and drift to deeper seas,
where storms give way to calmer skies,
and all is peace and ease.
14. “Touched by an Angel,” Maya Angelou
We, unfamiliar with courage,
exiles from joy,
live encased in shells of solitude
until love descends
from its sacred perch
and meets us face-to-face—
freeing us into life.
Love arrives,
followed by joy
and the ghosts of past delight
and sorrow.
Yet when we’re brave,
love breaks our chains of fear.
We leave our timidity behind
in love’s warm light.
We become bold.
And we discover that love
demands everything—
all that we are and will be.
But only love
can truly set us free.
15. “I Carry Your Heart With Me,” E.E. Cummings
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
this is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
