Happy Valentine's Day 2026: 20 Best Valentine's Day poems for him and her to make them feel special

Valentine's Day is here, and this is the time to delight your partners and show them just how you love and care for them. Be it the expensive gifts, shoes, and watches you give them, or the beautiful handwritten notes you slip in their bags, it is all a form of love, and all of it is bound to make your better half feel important and special.From reading adorable romantic stories together to singing to each other love songs of the old and new, this Valentine's go an extra mile to show them how much you adore them, love them, care for them, and wish to be with them. So, here we mention 20 best Valentine's Day poems for your partner to make them feel special. 1. Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare 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,And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;2. ‘Sonnets from the Portuguese 43’ by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningHow 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 sightFor the ends of being and ideal grace.I love thee to the level of every day’sMost quiet need, by sun and candle-light.3. ‘Love’ by Samuel Taylor ColeridgeAll thoughts, all passions, all delights,Whatever stirs this mortal frame,All are but ministers of Love,And feed his sacred flame.See More: Happy Valentine's Day 2026: Top 50 Wishes, Messages and Quotes to share with your special someone 4. ‘A Red, Red Rose’ by Robert BurnsO my Luve is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June;O my Luve is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune.5. ‘She Walks in Beauty’ by Lord Byron She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that’s best of dark and brightMeet in her aspect and her eyes;Thus mellowed to that tender lightWhich heaven to gaudy day denies.6. ‘On Love’ by Kahlil Ghibran When you love you should not say,“God is in my heart,” but rather, “I amin the heart of God.” And think not you can direct the courseof love, for love, if it finds you worthy,directs your course.7. ‘Sonnet 40’ by William ShakespeareTake all my loves, my love, yea, take them all:What hast thou then more than thou hadst before?No love, my love, that thou mayst true love call—All mine was thine before thou hadst this more.8. ‘I loved you first’ by Christina RossettiI loved you first: but afterwards your loveOutsoaring mine, sang such a loftier songAs drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.Which owes the other most? my love was long,And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;9. ‘Sonnet 65’ by William ShakespeareSince brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless seaBut sad mortality o’er-sways their power,How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,Whose action is no stronger than a flower?10. ‘A Glimpse’ by Walt WhitmanA glimpse through an interstice caught,Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.11. ‘When You Are Old’ by William Butler YeatsWhen 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 lookYour eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;12. ‘Of Love’ by Robert HerrickHow Love came in, I do not know,Whether by th’ eye, or eare, or no:Or whether with the soule it came(At first) infused with the same:Whether in part ‘tis here or there,Or, like the soule, whole every where:13. ‘The day is gone’ by John KeatsThe day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!Sweet voice, sweet lips, soft hand, and softer breast,Warm breath, light whisper, tender semi-tone,Bright eyes, accomplish’d shape, and lang’rous waist!Faded the flower and all its budded charms,Faded the sight of beauty from my eyes,Faded the shape of beauty from my arms,Faded the voice, warmth, whiteness, paradise –Vanish’d unseasonably at shut of eve,When the dusk holiday – or holinightOf fragrant-curtain’d love begins to weaveThe woof of darkness thick, for hid delight,But, as I’ve read love’s missal through to-day,He’ll let me sleep, seeing I fast and pray.14. ‘Echo’ by Carol Ann Duffy I think I was searching for treasures or stonesin the clearest of poolswhen your face…when your face,like the moon in a wellwhere I might wish…might well wishfor the iced fire of your kiss;only on water my lips, where your face…15. ‘Love’s Philosophy’ by Percy Bysshe ShelleyThe fountains mingle with the river And the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever With a sweet emotion;Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divineIn one spirit meet and mingle.16. ‘Defeated By Love’ by RumiThe sky was litby the splendor of the moonSo powerfulI fell to the groundYour lovehas made me sureI am ready to forsakethis worldly life17. Rupi Kaur i need someone who knows struggle as well as i doSomeone willing to hold my feet in their lapon days it is too difficult to standthe type of person who gives exactly what i needbefore i even know i need itthe type of lover who hears me even when i do not speakis the type of understanding i demand18. ‘Flirtation’ by Rita DoveOutside the sun has rolled up her rugsand night strewn salt across the sky. My heart is humming a tuneI haven’t heard in years!19. ‘Heart! We will forget him!’ by Emily DickinsonHeart! We will forget him!You and I – tonight!You may forget the warmth he gave –I will forget the light!20. ‘One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII’ by Pablo Neruda, translated by Mark EisnerI don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain obscure things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.