In the words of …
Writing your vows can be pretty tricky, especially for those of us who don’t usually find the right words. How exactly do you say how much you love your partner? Luckily for those of us who need a little help, many LGBT poets have written some beautiful love poems. Check out these four poets and their works for a little bit of inspiration or to quote them in your vows.
EMILY DICKINSON
Partaking in a quiet and low-key lifestyle, Emily Dickinson hardly ever traveled or participated in social activities. She preferred to spend her time writing letters and poems. Through letters to her-believed-lover Susan Gilbert, Dickinson wrote particularly beautiful poetry.
“For every word I say- my heart is full of you, none other than you is in my thoughts, yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me. If you were here- and oh that you were, my Susie, we need not talk at all, our eyes would whisper for us, and your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language.”—excerpt from a letter to Susan in June of 1852.
Some of her other romantic works include Forever is Composed of Nows, If You Were Coming in the Fall and Of All the Souls that Stand Create.
WALT WHITMAN
Known as the creator of free verse, Walt Whitman is most famous for Leaves of Grass, a collection of poems thought to be extremely sexual for its time. Using his journalistic skills to try to increase the popularity of poems, Whitman wrote many love poems to his romantic interests.
“Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me, whispering I love you, before long I die, I have travell’d a long way merely to look on you and touch you, for I could not die til I once look’d on you, for fear’d I might afterward lose you. Now we have met, we have look’d, we are safe.”—excerpt from Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd.
Also consider As If a Phantom Caressed Me and Fast, Anchor’d, Eternal, O Love.
LANGSTON HUGHES
Langston Hughes was one of the most well-loved poets and social activists of all time. He was very private and reserved about his love life, but wrote many powerful and inspiring poems about love.
“Love is a ripe plum growing on a purple tree. Taste it once and the spell of its enchantment will never let you be. Love is a bright star flowing in far Southern skies.”—excerpt from Love Song for Lucinda.
Try Life is Fine and Sweet Brown Harlem Girl for more love tidbits.
OSCAR WILDE
Although popularly known for The Importance of Being Earnst and The Picture of Dorian Gary, Oscar Wilde wrote numerous poems. Typically a somber writer of love poems, he did write a few very beautiful, positive proses.
“Sit closer love: it was here I trow I made that vow, swore that two lives should be like one as long as the sea-gull loved the sea, as long as the sunflower sought the sun- It shall be, I said, for eternity ‘twixt you and me!” —excerpt from Her Voice.
Don’t miss We are made One with what we Touch and See and Flower of Love.
