100 Favourite Love Poems of Britain BBC
“In 1995, The Bookworm (a BBC weekly television programme on literature hosted by Griff Rhys Jones, 1994 to 2000) asked BBC viewers and listeners to vote for their favourite poems (See 100 Favourite Poems of Britain) ... This year we want to find out which love poems have really touched the nation’s heart… This book is an attempt to collect together everyone’s favourite love poems, old, new, happy, sad, erotic or wistful. If you’ve ever had the experience of being in love and suddenly finding lines from poems filling your head unbidden and you need to track them down, then I hope you’ll find them in this book.” (from The Nation’s Favourite Love Poems – a Selection of Romantic Verse, ‘Introduction’ by Daisy Goodwin)
Note: Unlike The Nation’s Favourite Poems, the poems are not arranged by popularity as indicated by the number of votes. Instead, “the 10 most popular poems from the 1997 poll to find the nation’s favourite love poem” are first listed. The table of contents then groups poems by theme.
The 10 most popular love poems as polled by BBC in 1997 are:
1 Sonnet from the Portuguese XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
2 He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, W.B. Yeats
3 Twelve Songs IX Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, W.H. Auden
4 A Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns
5 Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare
6 To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell
7 Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? William Shakespeare
8 Remember, Christina G. Rossetti
9 Renouncement*, Alice Meynell 1847--1922
10 When You are Old, W.B. Yeats
(*Editor’s note in the book: “The poems in this book were selected before the poll results were announced. This poem was not in the original selection, however it will feature in future editions.”)
Love’s Beginnings
Sonnet from the Portuguese XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806—61
First Love, John Clare 1793--1864
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, W.B. Yeats 1865--1939
Oh Tell Me the Truth about Love, W.H. Auden 1907--73
Delight in Disorder, Robert Herrick 1591—1674
Sonnet LXXV One day I wrote her name upon the strand, Edmund Spenser 1552—99
from Maud, Come into the Garden Maud, Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809—92
After the Lunch, Wendy Cope 1945 –
from The Princess, Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal, Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809—92
To Celia, Benjamin Jonson 1572—1637
The Baite, John Donne 1572—1631
Love’s Philosophy, Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792—1822
Valentine, Wendy Cope 1945—
The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Christopher Marlowe 1564—93
A Subaltern’s Love-Song, Sir John Betjeman 1906—84
from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerald 1809—83
The Flea, John Donne 1572—1631
To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time, Robert Herrick 1591—1674
To His Coy Mistress, Andrew Marvell 1621—78
The Canonization, John Donne 1572—1631
Song, Edmund Waller 1606—87
Giving Up Smoking, Wendy Cope 1945—
Celebration and Adoration
Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?, William Shakespeare 1564—1616
Dea Ex Machina, John Updike 1932—
She Walks in Beauty, George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824
Flowers, Wendy Cope 1945—
Sonnet 29 When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, William Shakespeare 1564—1616
Field Work, Seamus Heaney 1939—
Warming Her Pearls, Carol Ann Duffy 1955—
Sonnet 106 When in the chronicle of wasted time, William Shakespeare 1564—1616
You’re, Sylvia Plath 1932—63
from Doctor Faustus, The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships, Christopher Marlowe 1564—93
Valentine, John Fuller 1937—
The Confirmation, Edwin Muir 1887—1959
Celia, Celia, Adrian Mitchell 1932—
Love in Absence
Bobby Shafto’s Gone to Sea, Anon
Remember, Christina G. Rossetti 1830—94
Words, Wide Night, Carol Ann Duffy 1955—
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, John Donne 1572—1631
A Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns 1759—1796
To Lucasta, Going to the Warres, Richard Lovelace 1618—58
Western Wind, Anon
Love Fulfilled
The Good-Morrow, John Donne 1572—1631
A Birthday, Christina G. Rossetti 1830—94
from The Prophet, On Marriage, Kahlil Gibran 1883—1931
Love (III), George Herbert 1593—1633
The Undertaking, John Donne 1572—1631
Lullaby, W.H. Auden 1907—73
Sonnet 116 Let me not to the marriage of true minds, William Shakespeare 1564—1616
Aire and Angels, John Donne 1572—1631
Bright Star, John Keats 1795—1821
The Sunne Rising, John Donne 1572—1631
The First Day, Christina G. Rossetti 1830—94
In a Bath Teashop, Sir John Betjeman 1906—84
Wedding-Wind, Philip Larkin 1922—85
John Anderson My Jo, Robert Burns 1759—96
Elegie: To His Mistress Going to Bed, John Donne 1572—1631
from Summer with Monika, Roger McGough 1937—
Sonnet form the Portuguese XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806—61
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat, Edward Lear 1812—88
In Warning of Love
When I was One-and-Twenty, A.E. Housman 1859—1936
La Belle Dame Sans Merci, John Keats 1795—1821
In Honour of Love, Jenny Joseph 1932—
The Clod and the Pebble, William Blake 1757—1827
Unfortunate Coincidence, Dorothy Parker 1893—1967
Love Song, Ted Hughes 1930—
For Anne Gregory, W.B. Yeats 1865--1939
He Fumbles at Your Spirit, Emily Dickinson 1830—86
Symptoms of Love, Robert Graves 1895—1985
from Twelfth Night, Song, William Shakespeare 1564—1616
Love Without Hope, Robert Graves 1895—1985
Love Lost and Love Remembered
Twelve Songs IX Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone, W.H. Auden 1907—73
Lady Greensleeves, Anon
When We Two Parted, George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824
They Fle from Me That Sometyme Did Me Seke, Sir Thomas Wyatt 1503—42
Never Seek to Tell thy Love, William Blake 1757—1827
The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo, Edward Lear 1812—88
Down by the Salley Gardens, W.B. Yeats 1865—1939
The Secret, John Clare 1793--1864
To Lizbie Browne, Thomas Hardy 1840—1928
‘Go Now’, Edward Thomas 1878-1917
Love’s Farewell, Andrew Drayton 1563—1631
After a Journey, Thomas Hardy 1840—1928
Coat, Vicki Feaver 1943—
One Art, Elizabeth Bishop 1911—79
Indoor Games Near Newbury, Sir John Betjeman 1906—84
Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae, Ernest Dowson 1867—1900
from A Shropshire Lad, Oh, When I was in Love with You, A.E. Housman 1859—1936
The Hill, Rupert Brooke 1887—1915
Love in a Life, Robert Browning 1812—89
R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida, Emily Bronte 1818—48
Sonnet XLII What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892—1950
The Voice, Thomas Hardy 1840—1928
Sonnet II Time does not bring relief; you all have lied, Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892—1950
Love Song in Age, Philip Larkin 1922—85
The Lost Love, William Wordsworth 1770—1850
So, We’ll Go No More A-roving, George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788-1824
Tarantella, Hilaire Belloc 1870—1953
Jenny Kissed Me, Leigh Hunt 1784—1859
When You are Old, W.B. Yeats 1865--1939
(taken from The Nation’s Favourite Love Poems, a Selection of Romantic Verse, edited by Daisy Goodwin. London: BBC Books, 1997)