15poems & readings
Anniversary Poems
Poems for the long game of love: lines for cards, toasts, and the people still choosing each other.
LengthForm
When You Are Old
W. B. Yeats · 1893
When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
12 lines · lyric
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet · 1678
If ever two were one, then surely we.If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.If ever wife was happy in a man,
12 lines · lyric
Sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
William Shakespeare · 1609
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
14 lines · sonnet
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
William Shakespeare · 1609
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds,
14 lines · sonnet
How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43)
Elizabeth Barrett Browning · 1850
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.I love thee to the depth and breadth and heightMy soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
14 lines · sonnet
A Red, Red Rose
Robert Burns · 1794
O my Luve is like a red, red roseThat's newly sprung in June;O my Luve is like the melody
16 lines · ballad
Roses Are Red (I Would Still Pick You)
The QuillOak Editors
Roses are red, as they were at the start,when I practiced your name and rehearsed every part;the petals have changed, but the question stays true:
4 lines · roses are red
One More Year of We
The QuillOak Editors
One more year of "where's my keys?",of "taste this," and "come see" —one more year I'd trade for nothing:
4 lines · quatrain
Two Cups
The QuillOak Editors
Marriage is two cupson one small shelf —not matching, never matching,
7 lines · free verse
Slow Dance in the Kitchen
The QuillOak Editors
We never learned the proper steps,we sway more than we dance,the dinner's burning on the stove,
8 lines · lyric
Still
The QuillOak Editors
After all the years and weather,after every flight delayed,after arguments in IKEA
8 lines · lyric
Two Degrees
The QuillOak Editors
We battle on the thermostat —you win by two degrees;I get you back in hoodie theft
8 lines · lyric
The Secret
The QuillOak Editors
Our wedding song sounds older now,the photos soft with age,but you still get top billing, love,
8 lines · lyric
The Load-Bearing Years
The QuillOak Editors
The first year gets champagne.The fiftieth gets gold.But these — the middle years,
10 lines · free verse
Sonnet 104: To me, fair friend, you never can be old
William Shakespeare · 1609
To me, fair friend, you never can be old,For as you were when first your eye I ey'd,Such seems your beauty still. Three winters cold,
14 lines · sonnet