Good Wedding Poems for Your
Ceremony, Invitations and More

Here is a wonderful collection of good wedding poems that can be used as wedding vows, as a recital during the ceremony and on invitations too!

You can use these quick jump links to go to each of the wedding poems below.

Shall I Compare Thee? | The Passionate Shepherd
She Walks In Beauty | The Ensilver Song | Married Love

Write Your Own Unique Wedding Ceremony Vows

Shall I Compare Thee? by William Shakespeare

Shall I Compare Thee? is one of Shakespeare's most famous of sonnets. The emotional feelings it invokes still draws in lovers with its deep meaning, even centuries later.

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day?
Thou are 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:

But thy eternal Summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st 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.

The Passionate Shepherd by Christopher Marlow

The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is a poem written by the English dramatist, poet and translator, Christopher Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 � 30 May 1593) in the 1590s. The message from Marlowe was one of ideal love, and also taking life at leisure and it is considered one of the earliest examples of the pastoral style of British poetry in the late Renaissance period. The poem was the subject of a well-known and somewhat jaded "reply" by Walter Raleigh, called The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd.

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods or steepy mountains yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroidered all with leaves of myrtle;

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair-lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold;

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

She Walks In Beauty by Lord Byron

She Walks in Beauty is a poem written in 1814 by Lord Byron (22 January 1788 � 19 April 1824). It was the first of several poems to be set to Jewish tunes from the synagogue by Isaac Nathan, which were published as Hebrew Melodies in 1815.

Byron is said to have written the poem after meeting his cousin Lady Anne Wilmot Horton in black mourning clothes, which, when combined with her pale skin and "raven tresses" (black hair), reminded him of stars and the night. The poem claims this lovely outer appearance as a sign of her inner beauty and purity.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

The Ensilver Song

This wedding poem is taken from a British folk song which is a lovely toasting of good cheer and luck to the bride and bridegroom.

Now here's a good health to the bride of yon house,
Grant her a solid good cheer;
Lord, bless her good health, Lord prosper her wealth,
That we may be married next year.

Well, here's to the bride, good luck to the lass,
Grant her a solid good cheer;
And through her garter, we'll pass each glass,
And may we be married next year.

Our glasses we'll lift now to the bridegroom.
Grant him a solid good cheer;
And the fellow that spills it he'll pay for t'next round,
And may we be married next year.

To the bridal pair we all will sing.
And grant them a solid good cheer;
In spite of Turk or Spanish king,
And may we be married next year.

Married Love by Kuan Tao-Sheng

One of the most well-known of Chinese love poems is Married Love, written by Kuan Tao-Sheng (1262-1319). She was one of China's greatest bamboo artists who lived during the 13th century.

You and I
Have so much love
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay.
In life we share a single quilt.
In death we will share one bed.