My love, as we stand on the threshold of forever, every detail of our marriage ceremony feels precious, especially the words we choose to speak our truth. There is no better way to set the tone for a lifelong commitment than with the beauty and permanence of poetry. Wedding poems offer a timeless, beautiful way to articulate the deep, overwhelming joy of two souls becoming one. Whether you are looking for classic poems for wedding ceremony readings or heartfelt love poems for wedding guests to cherish, these five verses are perfect expressions of commitment, hope, and enduring love and marriage.
Verses of Unity and Lasting Devotion
1. Married Love
By Kuan Tao-sheng (Guan Daosheng) (Translated by Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung)
You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share a single coffin.
2. Sonnets from the Portuguese 43: How Do I Love Thee?
By Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
3. On Marriage
By Kahlil Gibran
Then Almitra spoke again and said, How shall we speak of Marriage, master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous,
But let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone
Though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.
4. Marriage Morning
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Light, so low upon earth,
You send a flash to the sun.
Here is the golden close of love,
All my wooing is done.
O all the woods and the meadows,
Woods where we hid from the wet,
Stiles where we stay’d to be kind,
Meadows in which we met!
Light, so low in the vale,
You flash and lighten afar:
For this is the golden morning of love,
And you are his morning star.
Flash, I am coming, I come,
By meadow and stile and wood:
Oh, lighten into my eyes and my heart,
Into my heart and my blood!
Heart, are you great enough
For a love that never tires?
O heart, are you great enough for love?
I have heard of thorns and briers.
Over the thorns and briers,
Over the meadows and stiles,
Over the world to the end of it,
Flash of a million miles.
5. Untitled
By Christina Rossetti
What is the beginning? Love.
What the course. Love still.
What the goal. The goal is Love.
On a happy hill.
Is there nothing then but Love?
Search we sky or earth
There is nothing out of Love
Hath perpetual worth;
All things flag but only Love,
All things fail and flee;
There is nothing left but Love
Worthy you and me.
A Forever Promise
These poems about love and marriage are more than just beautiful words; they are the anchors that hold the promise we are making to each other today. Reading them aloud feels like tracing the history of human devotion, reminding us that our vows are part of a grand, sweeping story. My darling, these are the marriage poems that will forever define the start of our journey. Let us carry their truths in our hearts as we step forward, together, into our own beautiful, unforgettable beginning.