Romantic Poetry Quotes for Wedding Vows

As the wedding season approaches, preparations escalate to the point of frenzy. With so many details to take care of, do you have time for... poetry? Yes, you heard right: Poetry. Consider this: Beyond all the fuss and general kerfuffle over flowers, music, and food, what will be the pivotal moment of your wedding, the moment that will come closest to magic? I'd say it will be when you exchange wedding vows with the love of your life. If your religion and/or tradition allow for personalized vows, why not look to the pros for inspiration?

Here is a sampler of romantic poetry excerpts that can be incorporated into wedding vows:

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.
..................................................................................
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnet 18

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Sonnet 116
(Note: Do check out the joint recital of sonnet 116 by Kate Winslet and Greg Wise in Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility": They bring every word to life.)

All other things to their destruction draw,
Only our love hath no decay;
This, no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday,
Running, it never runs from us away,
But truly keeps his first, last, everlasting day.
John Dunne (1572-1631), The Anniversary

O, my Love's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June.
O, my Love's like the melody,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
..........................................................
And I will love thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun!
And I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.
Robert Burns (1759-1796), A Red Red Rose (1796)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
.................................................................................
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861), Sonnets from the Portuguese, no. 43 (1850)

I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
W.H. Auden (1907-1973), As I Walked Out One Evening (1940)

Sources:

http://www.poetry-archive.com/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15551