Romantic Poetry - Expressions of love
When many people think of romantic poetry they think of marriage, weddings, happiness, love and that special person in our life. However, Romantic poetry was actually a form of European literature during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Poems from this time period reflect the return of man to nature, the search for truth and the embracing of beauty. While the specific term of romantic poetry varies, this first form is defined as a movement seeking freedom, with increased emotional effect using ancient and folk sources. Some poets from this time you may recognize are John Keats, Henry Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe.
While these poets and others from that time period produced beautiful works of romantic poetry, it is not this form of romantic poetry that we think of today. I think of my husband and love when I read romantic poetry, as I am sure many other people do.
One of my favorite examples of romantic poetry technically isn’t a poem. It is a passage from the bible, which is very familiar and used at many wedding ceremonies. I Corinthians 13:4-8a reads “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts , always hopes always perseveres. Love never fails.” This passage was used at my own wedding and it is and always will be one of my favorites. It not only speaks of love between a husband and wife but the love that God, our holy father, has for all of us.
Another example of romantic poetry that is one of my all time favorites is a poem that was read during a wedding ceremony on the soap opera Days of our Lives. When Jack and Jennifer married the first time, Jennifer recited this poem to Jack that was beautiful:
Now we will feel no rain
For each of us will be shelter to each other.
And now we will feel no cold
For each of us will be warmth to each other.
Now there is no loneliness
We are two bodies, but there is one life before us and one home.
When evening falls, I’ll look to you and there you’ll be.
And I’ll take your hand and you’ll take mine
And we’ll turn together and we’ll look to the road we traveled to reach this—
The hour of our happiness.
It stretched far behind us, and our future lies ahead–
A long and winding road where every turning means discovery
All the hopes, new laughter, shared tears,
The adventure has just begun.
This too, will remain as one of my favorites in romantic poetry that I will treasure.
I hope that reading these poems have touched your life as they have touches mine.