How to Write a Love Poem: Forms, Techniques and Examples for Beginners

Here's how to write a love poem, in one sentence: pick one true, specific moment with the person you love, describe it with concrete details your reader can see and hear, choose a simple form that fits the feeling, and revise until every line sounds like you. That's it. You don't need fancy words, perfect rhymes, or a literature degree. Some of the most famous love poems in English are built from ordinary language and one clear idea.

This guide walks you through the whole process. You'll learn a step-by-step method, the craft tricks poets use (imagery, metaphor, sound and line breaks), and four forms that work beautifully for love poems: the sonnet, the ghazal, the haiku and free verse. Along the way, we'll look closely at a few classic public-domain love poems to see how they work, and you'll get worked examples and writing prompts so you can try each idea right away.

How to write a love poem in seven steps

If you're short on time, follow these steps in order. Each one is explained in more detail later in the article.

1. Choose one moment. Not "everything I love about you." Pick one scene: the morning they burned the toast, the drive where you got lost, the first time they laughed at your terrible joke.
2. Collect details. Write down what you saw, heard, smelled and felt in that moment. Aim for 10 to 15 small, specific details.
3. Find your one idea. Ask: what does this moment say about us? That's the heart of your poem, and it's often a single sentence.
4. Pick a form. A haiku for a single image, free verse for a story, a sonnet for an argument or a promise, a ghazal for longing.
5. Write a messy first draft. Don't judge it. Just get the details and the idea onto the page.
6. Revise for freshness and sound. Swap clichés for your own details. Read it aloud and fix any line that trips your tongue.
7. End with a turn. Give the last line a small surprise, a promise, or a quiet shift in feeling.

Let's look at each of these ideas, starting with the most important one.

Start with one true, specific moment

The biggest difference between a love poem that moves people and one that feels like a greeting card is specificity. "Your eyes are beautiful" could be about anyone. "You squint at the menu like it owes you money" could only be about one person, and the person reading it will know it's them.

Here's a simple exercise. Set a timer for five minutes and answer these questions about your partner, as fast as you can:

• What's a small habit of theirs that nobody else would notice?
• What's an object that reminds you of them? A mug, a jacket, a song on the car radio?
• Where were you the last time you laughed together?
• What do they say when they're trying not to show they're happy?
• What did the air smell like on a day you remember with them?

Your answers are raw material. Most of them won't make it into the final poem, but one or two will become its spine. Poets sometimes call this the "image bank." The more specific your bank, the better your poem.

Why specific beats general

General words ask the reader to imagine something. Specific details let the reader see it. Compare these two lines. They're illustrative, written for this guide:

I love the way you care for me.

You leave the porch light on when I'm late, and the moths keep you company.

The second line never says "love" or "care," but it shows both. That's the core trick of most good love poems: show the feeling through things, and let the reader feel it.

The craft toolkit: imagery, comparison, sound and line breaks

You don't need to know every poetry term. These four tools will carry you a long way. Each term is defined in plain language the first time it appears.

Imagery

Imagery means language that appeals to the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. "The kitchen smelled like burned garlic and lemon" is imagery. "We had a nice dinner" is not. Try to include at least two senses in every short poem, and don't forget the quieter ones, like smell and touch.

Metaphor and simile

A simile compares two things using "like" or "as." A metaphor says one thing is another. Robert Burns's famous song-poem "A Red, Red Rose" opens with a simile comparing his love to a rose newly bloomed in June, and the Academy of American Poets' page for the poem is a good place to read the whole thing.

The secret with comparisons is to make them surprising but true. "Your love is like a rose" was fresh in Burns's day and is worn out now. "Your love is like the extra blanket you put on my side of the bed" is new, specific and warm.

Sound

Poems are made to be heard. A few sound tools to know:

• Rhyme: words that end with the same sound, like "light" and "night."
• Slant rhyme: words that almost rhyme, like "home" and "alone." Slant rhyme often sounds more natural than perfect rhyme in modern poems.
• Alliteration: repeating the first sound of nearby words, like "soft, slow Sunday."
• Rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Even free verse has rhythm. Read your lines aloud to hear it.

Line breaks

A line break is where you end a line and start the next. Line breaks control speed and emphasis. A word at the end of a line gets a tiny pause and a little extra attention. Compare:

I didn't say I love you. I said / drive safe.

Putting "drive safe" alone after the break makes the reader feel the weight of everything left unsaid. You can try breaking the same sentence in three different places and reading each version aloud. You'll hear how much the break changes the feeling.

Choosing a form for your love poem

A form is a set of rules about length, rhyme, rhythm or structure. Forms can feel limiting, but many writers find them freeing: the rules give you something to push against and stop you from staring at a blank page. Here's how four great love-poem forms compare.

Form	Length	Key rules	Best for	Difficulty
Haiku	3 lines	Traditionally 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern, focused on a single image	One small, perfect moment	Easy to start, hard to master
Free verse	Any	No set meter or rhyme; shaped by the rhythms of speech	Telling a story, natural voice	Easy to start
Ghazal	At least 5 couplets	Each couplet stands alone; a repeated refrain and rhyme	Longing, missing someone, devotion	Medium
Sonnet	14 lines	Usually iambic pentameter with a set rhyme scheme and a "turn"	A promise, an argument, a proposal	Harder, very rewarding

If you've never written a poem before, start with a haiku or free verse. If you want something for a big moment, like an anniversary or a proposal, a sonnet carries a lot of romantic history. Let's go through each one.

How to write a love sonnet

The sonnet is the classic love poem in English. According to the Academy of American Poets, the sonnet is traditionally a fourteen-line poem in iambic pentameter, and its name comes from the Italian sonetto, "a little sound or song." It reached England when Sir Thomas Wyatt introduced the Italian form in the early sixteenth century, and English poets then reshaped it.

Iambic pentameter, explained simply

An iamb is a pair of syllables where the second one is stressed: da-DUM. "Pentameter" means five of them in a line. So a line of iambic pentameter goes da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM, about ten syllables. Read this famous line aloud and you'll hear it:

shall I com-PARE thee TO a SUM-mer's DAY

The rhythm doesn't have to be perfect. Even Shakespeare varied it. But aiming for roughly ten syllables with a gentle da-DUM pattern will give your sonnet a natural, heartbeat-like pulse.

The three main sonnet types

Type	Structure	Rhyme scheme	Where the "turn" falls
Petrarchan (Italian)	An 8-line octave plus a 6-line sestet	abba abba, then cdecde or cdcdcd	Between lines 8 and 9
Shakespearean (English)	Three 4-line quatrains plus a 2-line couplet	abab cdcd efef gg	Often in the final couplet
Spenserian	Three linked quatrains plus a couplet	abab bcbc cdcd ee	Often in the final couplet

In the rhyme scheme, each letter stands for a sound. Lines marked "a" rhyme with each other, lines marked "b" rhyme with each other, and so on. The volta, or turn, is the moment the poem shifts: a question gets answered, a problem gets solved, or a complaint becomes a promise. Poets.org describes the Petrarchan turn as falling "between the eighth and ninth lines."

A model: Shakespeare's Sonnet 18

Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 was published in 1609 and is in the public domain. You can read it with notes at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Here it is in full:

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 dimmed;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Notice how it's built. Lines 1 to 8 list the problems with summer: it's too windy, too short, too hot, and it fades. Line 9 starts with "But," and that's the turn. Your beauty won't fade, the speaker says, because this poem will keep it alive. The final couplet makes a promise. That's a structure you can borrow: compare, find the flaw, then promise.

One fun fact: the Folger's synopsis explains that this sonnet is addressed to a young man in Shakespeare's sequence. Love poems don't have to follow any one script about who's speaking to whom.

Worked example: building a quatrain

Let's build the first quatrain of a Shakespearean sonnet together. This example is illustrative, written for an imaginary couple who met at a bus stop.

1. Moment: They met waiting for a late bus in the rain.
2. Details: a broken umbrella, a timetable nobody trusted, wet sneakers, a shared bag of pretzels.
3. Rhyme plan: abab. Choose end words first: "rain / late / again / wait."
4. Draft lines, counting about ten syllables each:

We met beneath a timetable in rain,

two strangers trusting buses running late;

you broke your bent umbrella once again

and shared your pretzels while we both stood, wet, to wait.

Read it aloud and you'll notice the last line runs long. Revision trims it: "and shared your pretzels while we had to wait." Now it's closer to ten syllables and sounds smoother. That's the whole sonnet process in miniature: plan the rhymes, draft, count, read aloud, trim.

How to write a love ghazal

The ghazal (pronounced roughly "guzzle") is one of the world's great love-poem forms. According to the Academy of American Poets, the ghazal has roots in seventh-century Arabia and rose to prominence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries through Persian poets including Rumi and Hafiz. Ghalib became a master of the form in Urdu, and Agha Shahid Ali helped bring the classical ghazal to American readers. Its traditional themes are love, longing, melancholy and big questions about life.

The rules of the ghazal

• It's made of couplets, pairs of lines. Poets.org says a ghazal has a minimum of five couplets and typically no more than fifteen.
• Each couplet should stand on its own, like a small, complete poem.
• The first couplet sets up a rhyme followed by a refrain (a repeated word or phrase) at the end of both lines.
• In every later couplet, only the second line repeats the rhyme and refrain.
• The final couplet often includes the poet's own name, or a play on its meaning, as a kind of signature.

Worked example: a short ghazal

Here's an illustrative ghazal written for this guide. The refrain is "with you," and the rhyme before it is the "-ay" sound (stay, day, way, gray, say). The poet's name in the last couplet, Lena, is made up.

The kettle hums, the rain has learned to stay with you.

I cancel every plan I had today, with you.

The city maps are useless in my coat;

I never minded losing my way with you.

Your mother's photos crowd the hallway wall;

I'd like to watch our own hair turn gray with you.

The dog has picked a side, and it's not mine;

fair enough: I'd pick to spend each day with you.

Lena, you wrote a hundred lines tonight;

the only one you meant was this: I stay with you.

Notice how each couplet is its own little scene: rain, maps, photos, the dog. That's what makes a ghazal feel like a string of beads. The refrain ties them together, and every time it comes back, it gathers more feeling.

Tips for your own ghazal

• Choose a refrain that's short and easy to land: "tonight," "with you," "again," "your name."
• Brainstorm a list of 10 to 15 rhyme words before you start writing.
• Write more couplets than you need, then keep the best five to seven.
• Don't force the couplets to tell a story in order. Let them circle the feeling.

How to write a love haiku

The haiku is perfect for beginners because it's tiny. The Academy of American Poets explains that haiku began in thirteenth-century Japan as the opening phrase of renga, a long collaborative poem, and separated into its own form in the sixteenth century. Matsuo Bashō, Yosa Buson and Kobayashi Issa are considered its three classical masters. In English, a haiku is usually described as a three-line poem with seventeen syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern, often centered on nature.

Japanese haiku count sound units that don't line up exactly with English syllables, so many English-language poets treat 5-7-5 as a guideline rather than a law. What matters most is a single, clear image and a small moment of insight.

Worked example: a love haiku

Here's an illustrative haiku, with syllables counted:

your coat on my chair (5)

the whole kitchen smells of rain (7)

and the walk you took (5)

There's no "love" in it. But the coat on the chair, the rain smell and the walk suggest someone who just came home and someone who noticed. That's the haiku way: say less, show more.

Haiku tips

• Use the present tense. It makes the moment feel like it's happening now.
• Include a season or weather detail. It grounds the poem in time.
• Try a "cut," a small shift between the first two lines and the last, or vice versa. In the example, the shift comes with "and the walk you took," which adds a person to the scene.
• Write ten haiku in a row about the same person. The fifth or sixth is usually the best.

How to write a free verse love poem

Free verse means poetry without a set meter or rhyme scheme. The Academy of American Poets describes it as poetry not bound by a set form or meter, often shaped by the rhythms of speech. The name translates the French vers libre, and Walt Whitman is often called the father of American free verse.

Free verse isn't "anything goes." Without rhyme to lean on, the line breaks, images and rhythm of your sentences do all the work. That's why it's perfect for a love poem in your own natural voice.

Worked example: a free verse love poem

This illustrative poem was written for this guide. It uses the "one moment, many details, one turn" method.

Tuesday, the dishwasher broke

and you said, fine,

we'll do it the old way,

so you washed and I dried

and the radio played a song neither of us liked

and we sang it anyway,

badly, on purpose,

until the plates were done

and I realized

I had never wanted a dishwasher less.

Look at the structure. Eight lines of ordinary details, then the turn in the last two lines, where the speaker realizes something. The surprise ending makes the whole poem about love without ever using the word.

Learning from public-domain love poems

Reading great love poems is the fastest way to improve your own. Here are three classics, all in the public domain, with one lesson to steal from each.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: "How Do I Love Thee?"

This sonnet, published in Sonnets from the Portuguese, is one of the best-known love poems in English. You can read it on the Academy of American Poets' site. It opens:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

And it ends: "I shall but love thee better after death."

The lesson: structure through a list. The whole poem answers the question in the first line by counting ways, one after another. You can borrow this. Start with a question, such as "Why do I stay up waiting for you?" and answer it in a list of specific reasons.

Anne Bradstreet: "To My Dear and Loving Husband"

Anne Bradstreet was one of the first published poets in colonial America. Her short love poem to her husband, available on Poets.org, begins:

If ever two were one, then surely we.

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;

The lesson: repetition builds power. "If ever... then" repeats, and each time the claim gets bigger. Try starting three lines in a row with the same two or three words, and let each line raise the stakes.

Shakespeare: Sonnet 130

Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 begins "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun," and then spends twelve lines refusing every cliché of love poetry: her lips aren't coral red, her breath isn't perfume. In the final couplet, the speaker says his love is as rare as any woman described with false comparisons.

The lesson: honesty can be the most romantic choice. A poem that admits your partner snores, or burns the rice, and loves them anyway often lands harder than one that compares them to stars.

Common love poem mistakes and how to fix them

Almost everyone makes these mistakes on a first draft. That's fine. Here's how to spot them and what to do instead.

Mistake	Why it doesn't work	Fix
Clichés ("eyes like stars," "my everything")	Readers have seen them so often they slide right past	Swap in a detail only you know, like the way they hum while cooking
Forced rhyme	You twist a sentence or pick a strange word just to rhyme	Use slant rhyme, change the rhyme word, or switch to free verse
Too many abstract words (love, forever, soul, heart)	Abstract words tell feelings instead of showing them	Keep one abstract word at most; let images carry the rest
Trying to say everything	The poem gets long and loses focus	Pick one moment and cut everything else
Ending on a summary	"And that's why I love you" flattens the surprise	End on an image, a promise or a small twist
Old-fashioned words you wouldn't say ("thee," "ere," "doth")	They sound stiff in a modern poem	Write how you talk; save "thee" for a deliberate, playful nod

How to revise your love poem

The first draft is for getting it down. Revision is where the poem becomes good. Use this checklist, one pass at a time.

1. Read it aloud. Out loud, not in your head. Mark any spot where you stumble or run out of breath.
2. Circle every abstract word. Words like "love," "beautiful," "amazing," "special" and "forever." For each one, ask whether a concrete image could replace it.
3. Check your verbs. Strong verbs ("tugs," "hums," "spills") do more than weak ones plus adverbs ("moves gently").
4. Cut the first line. Many drafts warm up for a line or two before the real poem starts. Try deleting your opening line and see if the poem gets better.
5. Test the ending. Cover your last line. Does the poem still work? If so, maybe the line before it is your real ending.
6. Look at line breaks. Does each line end on a strong word? Avoid ending lines on "the," "a," or "and" unless you want that hanging feeling on purpose.
7. Let it rest. Leave it for a day, then reread. Fresh eyes catch what tired ones miss.

Try it yourself: a 20-minute love poem workshop

Ready to write? Here's a timed exercise. All you need is a pen and paper or your phone's notes app.

• Minutes 0 to 5: Brainstorm. List 15 specific details about one moment with your person. Don't stop to judge.
• Minutes 5 to 7: Circle the three most vivid details. Write one sentence about what the moment means to you.
• Minutes 7 to 15: Draft. Use your circled details and end with your meaning sentence, rewritten as an image or a promise. Choose free verse for a first try.
• Minutes 15 to 20: Revise. Read aloud, cut one line, swap one cliché, and check your last line.

Ten prompts to get you started

1. Write about the first time you heard them laugh.
2. Describe an object in your home that belongs to both of you.
3. Write a "how do I love thee" list poem with only kitchen details.
4. Write a haiku about the weather on your first date.
5. Write a sonnet that starts with a complaint and turns into a promise.
6. Write a ghazal with the refrain "your name."
7. Write a poem using the pet name you call them as the title.
8. Write about a fight you got through together, ending on what you learned.
9. Describe them from the point of view of your dog, cat or houseplant.
10. Write a "Sonnet 130" poem: list their charming imperfections, then love them anyway.

Matching the poem to the occasion

A poem for a first Valentine's Day shouldn't sound like one for a fiftieth anniversary. The form, length and tone you choose can make the poem feel just right for the moment. Here's a quick guide.

• A new relationship or a crush. Keep it light and short. A haiku or a playful four-line rhyme works well. Focus on a single small detail you noticed, which shows interest without overwhelming anyone.
• An anniversary. This is the time for a sonnet or a longer free verse poem. Try a "then and now" structure: the first half describes a memory from early on, and the turn brings it to today.
• Missing someone far away. The ghazal was practically made for longing. A refrain like "from here" or "across the miles" can carry the feeling of distance in every couplet.
• A proposal or a wedding. A sonnet's final couplet is a natural place for a promise. Keep it readable aloud, since you'll likely say it in front of people.
• Just because. A tiny free verse poem about an ordinary Tuesday can be the sweetest of all, because it says, "I love you even when nothing special is happening."

A tone check before you share

Read your finished poem and ask three quick questions. Would your partner be comfortable if someone else saw it? Does it sound like you, or like a greeting card? Does it focus on them, or mostly on your own feelings? A good love poem usually balances both: it shows how you feel by paying close attention to who they are.

If the poem feels too formal, loosen a line or two and add a detail from your everyday life together. If it feels too casual for a big moment, try moving it into a form, like a sonnet, which adds a sense of occasion without changing your words much. Small adjustments like these can turn a good draft into the right poem for the day.

Sharing your love poem

Once you've written it, how you share it matters too. A few ideas:

• Handwrite it. A handwritten poem in a card feels more personal than a text. Our list of Valentine's Day ideas includes other heartfelt, low-key gestures that pair well with a poem.
• Read it aloud. Over dinner, on a walk, or at an anniversary. Practice once beforehand so you're not reading it cold.
• Use their pet name. A nickname you share is instantly personal, and it can be a great title. If you're looking for one, browse our romantic nicknames for your girlfriend or romantic names for your boyfriend.
• Hide it. Tuck a haiku into a lunch bag or a coat pocket. Small surprises often mean the most, and our ideas for ways to make your partner feel special have more in the same spirit.
• Make it a tradition. One short poem every anniversary becomes a collection over the years.

If your poem includes an endearment like "sweetheart" or "darling," our guide to terms of endearment explains where many of those words come from, which can inspire a line or two. And if you'd rather write in prose, there are separate articles coming on famous love letters and on writing wedding vows.

Wrap-up: your love poem doesn't have to be perfect

Learning how to write a love poem comes down to a few habits: start with one real moment, gather specific details, choose a form that fits, and revise with your ears as well as your eyes. Borrow structures from the classics, like Shakespeare's turn, Barrett Browning's list and Bradstreet's repetition, and fill them with your own life. The person you love isn't looking for a masterpiece. They're looking for proof that you noticed.

If you want a sweet name to use as your poem's title or opening line, try our free nickname generator. You choose who it's for and a vibe, such as romantic, cute and sweet, or unique, and every suggestion comes with a short note on why it works. You can save favorites to a shortlist and try the Couple Name Mixer to blend your two names.

Poetry Tools Compared

This table puts the craft tools from the article side by side, with what each one does and an example.

Tool	What it does	Example from the article
Imagery	Appeals to the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch	"The kitchen smelled like burned garlic and lemon"
Simile and metaphor	A simile compares using "like" or "as"; a metaphor says one thing is another	Burns's "A Red, Red Rose" compares his love to a rose newly bloomed in June
Rhyme	Words that end with the same sound	"Light" and "night"
Slant rhyme	Words that almost rhyme; often sounds more natural in modern poems	"Home" and "alone"
Alliteration	Repeats the first sound of nearby words	"Soft, slow Sunday"
Rhythm	The pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables; even free verse has it	Read your lines aloud to hear it
Line breaks	Control speed and emphasis, giving the last word a tiny pause	"I didn't say I love you. I said / drive safe."

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start writing a love poem?

Start with one specific moment instead of trying to sum up the whole relationship. Write down 10 to 15 small details from that moment: what you saw, heard, smelled and felt. Then write one sentence about what the moment means to you. That sentence is the heart of your poem. Draft freely using your best details, and save the meaning for the last line or two. Starting small and specific is much easier than starting with a big idea like forever.

Does a love poem have to rhyme?

No. Many of the best modern love poems are written in free verse, which has no set rhyme or meter. Rhyme can be lovely, especially in a sonnet or a playful poem, but forced rhyme often makes lines sound awkward. If you want some musical feeling without strict rules, try slant rhyme, words that almost rhyme, like home and alone. Above all, read your poem aloud. If it sounds natural and true, it works, rhyme or not.

How long should a love poem be?

As long as it needs to be, and usually shorter than you think. A haiku is just three lines. A sonnet is fourteen. A ghazal has at least five couplets. A free verse love poem for a card often works best at 8 to 20 lines. Long poems are harder to keep focused, so if your draft is running long, ask whether you're describing one moment or several. Cutting it down to one moment usually makes it stronger.

What is the easiest kind of love poem to write?

A haiku or a short free verse poem is the easiest place to start. A haiku asks for one clear image in three lines, traditionally 5, 7 and 5 syllables in English. Free verse lets you write in your natural speaking voice without counting syllables or finding rhymes. Once you're comfortable, try a ghazal with a simple refrain, then a sonnet, which takes more planning but carries a lot of romantic tradition.

How do I avoid clichés in a love poem?

Circle phrases you've heard many times before, like eyes like stars, my everything, or heart of gold. For each one, ask what detail only you would know about your partner. Replace the cliché with that detail. Instead of you light up my life, you might write you leave the porch light on when I'm late. Specific, personal images feel fresh because nobody else could have written them about anyone else.

What is the structure of a love sonnet?

A traditional sonnet has fourteen lines, usually in iambic pentameter, which is about ten syllables per line with a da-DUM rhythm. A Shakespearean sonnet has three four-line sections called quatrains and a final rhyming couplet, with the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. A Petrarchan sonnet has an eight-line octave and a six-line sestet. Both include a turn, a moment where the poem shifts, often from a problem to a promise.

Can I quote a famous poem in my own love poem?

You can borrow a short phrase as an epigraph or a nod, especially from public-domain poems like Shakespeare's sonnets or Elizabeth Barrett Browning's How Do I Love Thee. Give credit, for example by naming the poet under the quote. For a personal gift, a short quotation is fine. For anything you publish, be careful with modern poems still under copyright, and keep most of the poem in your own words.

What is a ghazal and how do I write one?

A ghazal is a poem made of couplets, traditionally about love and longing. It has roots in seventh-century Arabia and became famous through Persian poets like Rumi and Hafiz. The first couplet ends both lines with a rhyme and a refrain. Later couplets repeat the rhyme and refrain only in the second line. Each couplet stands alone, and the last often includes the poet's name. Pick a short refrain, like with you, and write at least five couplets.

Should I read my love poem out loud to my partner?

If you're comfortable, yes. Hearing a poem in your voice adds warmth that the page can't. Practice once or twice so you're not reading it for the first time, and go slowly, pausing at the line breaks. If you're shy, handwrite it in a card or tuck it somewhere they'll find it, then let them read it alone. Either way, the effort means more than polished delivery.

Sources

We checked every source below while writing this guide. Last reviewed October 30, 2026, by Joan Ramos.

1. Sonnet (Glossary of Poetic Terms) (Academy of American Poets)
2. Ghazal (Glossary of Poetic Terms) (Academy of American Poets)
3. Haiku (Glossary of Poetic Terms) (Academy of American Poets)
4. Free Verse (Glossary of Poetic Terms) (Academy of American Poets)
5. Shakespeare's Sonnets: Sonnet 18 (Folger Shakespeare Library)
6. How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Academy of American Poets)
7. To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet (Academy of American Poets)
8. A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns (Academy of American Poets)