To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the following class and contemporary poems about love, heart, and friendship, are appropriate for young people.
Read related lesson plans for Valentine’s Day and year-round.
“Love” by Rupert Brooke
Love is a breach in the walls, a broken gate …
“How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways …
“Evening Song” by Willa Cather
Dear love, what thing of all the things that be …
“Heart to Heart” by Rita Dove
It’s neither red …
“Why I Love Thee?” by Sadakichi Hartmann
Why I love thee? ...
“Ask Me Why I Love You” by Walter Everette Hawkins
Ask me why I love you, dear …
“Of Love: A Sonnet” by Robert Herrick
How love came in I do not know …
“My Loves” by Langston Hughes
I love to see the big white moon …
“In the Heart of a Rose” by George Marion McClellan
I will hide my soul and its mighty love …
“Crossing the Line” by E. Ethelbert Miller
Sitting across the table from you …
“Untitled [Do you still remember: falling stars]” by Rainer Maria Rilke
Do you still remember: falling stars ...
“How Much?” by Carl Sandburg
How much do you love me, a million bushels? ...
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (Sonnet 18)” by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day ...
“A Valentine” by Priscilla Jane Thompson
Out of the depths of a heart of love …
“Sonnet w/ Rose” by Matthew Yeager
When I see you after so long not …
Poems for Teens:
“Love” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We cannot live, except thus mutually …
“Amores (IX)” by E. E. Cummings
i like …
“The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.” by Donika Kelly
I am taken with the hot animal ...
“Eros the Contagion” by Annie Kim
Soft as a Claude painting, the yellow sky tonight—
“Unacknowledged Pollinators” by Fady Joudah
“If you were a star,” you said, “you’d be called Forgive me.”
“I Loved You Before I Was Born” by Li-Young Lee
I loved you before I was born …
“Valentine’s Afternoon” by Michael McFee
Four lanes over, a plump helium heart—
“To O. E. A.” by Claude McKay
Your voice is the color of a robin’s breast ...
“Having a Coke with You” by Frank O’Hara
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye …
“[And sometimes I know I am having a feeling]” by Matthew Siegel
And sometimes I know I am having a feeling …
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