Emily Watson once said that the heart speaks the language of love that is best expressed by poems. As far back as the written word, poems have played an essential role in the expression of human dreams and desires. Poets in all parts of the world have always made efforts to explore and express the emotion of love in the form of poems. These love poems transport readers to the realm of pure, passionate and undying love; unchanged since the wheel of life has been put into motion.
The everlasting nature of the theme of love makes it as relevant today as it was centuries ago; the perennial fame of the master poets can be ascribed to the same cause. Their poems are our guiding beacons to the uncharted depths of love, and the reason we can’t do without them. According to Leslie Pockell, some of the most popular love poems of all time are – La Vita Nuova (Dante Alighieri), Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day (William Shakespeare), Who Ever Loved (Christopher Marlowe), Excerpt from Paradise Lost Book IV (John Milton), To Helen (Edgar Allen Poe), A Red, Red Rose (Robert Burns), She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep (Robert Graves), Last Night You Left Me and Slept (Rumi), I Prithee Send Me Back My Heart (Sir John Suckling) and I Carry Your Heart with Me (EE Cummings).
The above mentioned poems have been published in a single volume called “The 100 Best Love Poems of All Time,” edited by Leslie Pockell. Furthermore, one also has the option of choosing books that have the best love poems of recent times alone, which are by no means in a small number. The Internet has been a vital force in popularizing poetry. One can find scores of web sites that have a huge collection of poems both old and new. Some of them are exclusively oriented towards love poetry. These sites not only have classic love poems archived, but also make efforts to have a collection of contemporary love poems by inviting amateur poets to contribute. The poems are voted on by readers and a list of the best is compiled.