40 Most Romantic Lines from Poems to Melt Your Heart

I recently realized that, at some point, I wasn’t really crafting the kind of life I would be satisfied with in the long run. 

This realization – which I’ll talk about in more detail in another post – made me see that I wasn’t prioritizing what I consider the most important part of life: beauty. 

This is simply my own philosophy, but in short, I believe everything we do – every decision we make and every person we interact with – should be geared toward one goal: making sure we live a beautiful and bountiful life.

I realized I hadn’t been living according to this principle, and that really shocked me. 

If you had asked me before, I would have said my dissatisfaction was caused by external factors, but I’ve come to see that most of it was coming from within.

This might sound vague and a little woo-woo, but I’m still wrapping my head around many of these recent realizations, and I’ll put together a more detailed post once my thoughts are clearer. 

Suffice it to say, my goal right now is to serve myself and immerse myself in as much beauty as possible, because I feel that is what my soul ultimately craves.

One way I’m doing this is by reconnecting with poetry, which I unfortunately abandoned for a few years while I was caught up in the hustle and bustle.

Poetry used to be a huge part of my life, from the poetry books we read in school, to when I got into spoken word, to a time when I curated almost every moment of my life through a poetic lens.

I don’t even remember when I stopped immersing myself in the beauty of poetry, but as I mentioned, I’ve realized how much I miss it, and I want to reconnect with this deep part of my personality.

So, I’m putting together this list of my favorite lines from the most amazing poems. 

These lines are incredibly romantic, and beyond their romantic appeal, they carry a sense of self-actualization that I believe can help you aspire to a greater sense of inner satisfaction.

I know I might still sound a bit woo-woo even though I said I wouldn’t, but just check out this post if you’d like to read some of the most romantic and inspiring lines ever from poetry.

Most Romantic Lines from Poetry

In your light, I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. – Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

You were the one I wanted most to stay. But time could not be kept at bay. – Audre Lorde, from Love Poem

You leaned your head upon my shoulder. I was afraid you might hear my heart beating. – Sara Teasdale, from The Look

If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain. – Emily Dickinson, from Poem #919

And when we touch we enter touch entirely. – Ocean Vuong, from Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong

I want to be where your bare foot walks, because maybe before you step, you’ll look at the ground. – Pablo Neruda, from Your Feet

To love is not to possess, to own or imprison, nor to lose oneself in another. – James Kavanaugh, from To Love is Not to Possess

Yours was the first face I ever looked for at every gathering. – Warsan Shire, from The Unbearable Weight of Staying

You make me feel like I am home. – Bridgett Devoue, from Soft Thorns

You’re like a flame that glows in the quietest parts of me. – Nayyirah Waheed, from Salt

The way your laughter spills into the room, I want to bottle it, keep it near. – Jeanette Encinias, from Laughter

Sometimes I can’t see myself when I’m with you. I can only just see you. – Jodi Lynn Anderson, poetic passage from Tiger Lily

You took my emptiness and turned it into a room full of music. – Tyler Knott Gregson, from All the Words Are Yours

I dream of you to wake. Would that I might dream of you and sleep. – J.R.R. Tolkien, from a poem in The Lays of Beleriand

And suddenly all the love songs were about you. – Pavana Reddy, from Rangoli

You came too late to be my first love, but you will be the last. – Louise Glück, from Vespers

We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond. – Gwendolyn Brooks, from Paul Robeson

You have made a place in my heart where I thought there was no room for anything else. – Robert Jordan, from The Wheel of Time (verse excerpt)

Love is so short, forgetting is so long. – Pablo Neruda, from Tonight I Can Write

And you, my friend, are the reason I wake up with a smile. – Lang Leav, from Love and Misadventure

You must have been warned against letting the golden hours slip by; but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by. – James Matthew Barrie, in Courage

If I were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one. – Tyler Knott Gregson, from Chasers of the Light

Come live with me and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove. – Christopher Marlowe, from The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Yours is the light by which my spirit’s born: – you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars. – E.E. Cummings, again from #38

With you, I am more than I ever thought I could be. – Rupi Kaur, from Milk and Honey

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, ‘You owe me.’ Look what happens with a love like that. It lights the whole sky. – Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

I didn’t fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open. – Tiffanie DeBartolo, from How to Kill a Rock Star

I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees. – Pablo Neruda, from Every Day You Play

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Sonnet XLIII (How Do I Love Thee?)

You are my night, my sleep, my dream, and you are my morning too. – Nizar Qabbani, translated from Arabic

I loved you more than I have ever found a way to say to you. – Ben Maxfield, from Love After Love

You fit into me like a hook into an eye, a fish hook, an open eye. – Margaret Atwood, from You Fit Into Me

All that you are is all that I’ll ever need. – Edwin Arlington Robinson, from Credo

I’ll be your mirror, reflect what you are, in case you don’t know. – Lou Reed, in a poem-lyric from The Velvet Underground

What was any art but a mold in which to imprison for a moment the shining, elusive element which is life itself – life hurrying past us and running away. – Willa Cather, from a poetic essay in The Song of the Lark

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart). – E.E. Cummings, from [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

You are the bread and the knife, the crystal goblet and the wine. – Billy Collins, from Litany

And I will come again, my love, Though it were ten thousand mile. – Robert Burns, from My Heart’s in the Highlands

You are the answer to every question my heart has ever asked. – Dean Jackson, from Love Notes

I have found what you are like / the rain. – E.E. Cummings. 

When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you’re not here, I can’t go to sleep. – Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

You are every moment I’ve ever wanted to live twice. – Atticus Poetry, from Love Her Wild

Poetry is magical, no matter how you think about it, and so many of these lines have become embedded in my soul. 

If you have any favorite lines from a poem that you love – lines that have influenced the way you live your life – please let me know in the comments below!