Writing a Love Poem for your Beloved - Tips and Advice

In this day of instant messaging and speed dating, taking the time to compose a love poem for a beloved may not seem the figure on the priorities of most couples. But few expressions of love can be so profound in their depth and so intense in their passion as lines of love poetry. So even though you may not be able to bring the heavy sensuality of Keats or touching simplicity of Burns into your romantic offering, a love poem that you have written yourself will surely be treasured by your beloved for time to come.

Find some quiet time

While the Muse can strike you at any time – at a traffic light or even when waiting at the grocery queue – make it a bit easier for Her to visit you by creating the setting. Composition of poetry is much like any other creative activity – it needs focus and attention. Select a place where you are comfortable and a time when you are not likely to be interrupted. Also before you sit to pen your thoughts for your beloved, ensure that the TV and music system are turned off, your cell phone is on silent mode and if you are writing on your computer that you are not running any other applications which will keep tempting you to check on them. If you feel it may help your creative juices flow, you could sit with a cup of steaming tea play some soft music or light a perfumed candle. Creating a pleasant setting minus distractions will help you to focus better on what you wish to convey to your beloved and most importantly how you want to say them.

Begin with a draft

Just because you took a creative writing course last summer, don’t assume that you will get the poem right at the very first instance. Since poetry involves both expressing your emotions and maintaining a structure, you are likely to go back and forth while writing which means a good deal of crossing out, parentheses, afterthoughts and so on. Thus, it is always a good idea to begin with a draft and you can make a fair copy in the end.

Getting started

So you have set the mood and are ready to begin. But how to get started? A way to set the ball rolling is to think about the time when you first met your partner, your first date and your first kiss. These memories are sure to give rise to emotions of love in your heart which will guide you in making a start on your poem. Alternately you can bring your imagination into full play - imagine what your life would be like if the subject of the poem were to disappear. You can think about how your life has changed since he or she has entered it. You can look for fresh images of tenderness in the world around you, or imagine relationships between elements of the natural or human-created world that invoke similar feelings to what you feel for your beloved.

Give expression to your feelings

A love poem is the most romantic way to express your feelings for a beloved – even more than a love letter because the structural limitations and imagery of a poem heighten its intensity and effect. As you put your thoughts to paper, don’t worry that the words may sound cheesy or clichéd. Put down your truest emotions on paper and be guided by what your heart says. If you are passionately in love with your beloved, then express your desire in sensual terms. On the other hand if these are early days in your romance, then express you love in tender words. Whatever be the kind of love you share, make sure the expression comes from deep in your heart.

Keep it simple

While it is greatly tempting to use a good deal of hyperboles in your poem or perhaps indulge with a plethora of flattering comparisons, it is best to keep the language simple. This not only has the advantage of making your feeling appear genuine but is ultimately easy to sustain. Bear in mind that the more elaborate your sentence constructions, the higher are your chances of grammatical errors. The same goes for any structural or stylistic rules that you may have in mind for love poetry – while  rhyming words at the end of sentences certainly sound musical, indiscriminate or forced use may make them come off as childish and puerile. Rather there can be perfectly good poetry without rhymes and musical effect can be brought by other resources like alliteration and use of soft consonants.

As far as possible be original

Down the ages even the best poets and writers have been inspired by literary masters who came before them. Indeed at certain times like the Neoclassical period of eighteenth century English poetry, allusions to writers of ancient Rome like Horace and Juventus indicated familiarity with the classics and hence a worthy intellectual – and even social – background.  Hence there is nothing intrinsically wrong in looking at an image or a sound effect from a famous poet for your own inspiration – the trick though is to put your own spin on it, your own colors as it were into the outline you may have borrowed from the masters.

Again consider that people have been composing poems about love for as long as there has been language. And while there is no imminent danger of lovers running out of words, it is also a fact that all this talking and writing about love has used up a lot of the metaphors available in the language. As such while writing love poetry you  may find that it is easy to become trite and redundant in your expressions; for instance there is the oft-used method of comparing aspects of your sweetheart to beautiful things in the natural world but this approach has been used so often that it stands the danger of resulting in boring poems. Instead try to come up with original thoughts and imagery - it may take more time but the final result will surely be worth the effort.

Finally give it your best shot but don’t obsess. Keep in mind that your main purpose is to express your feelings of love for your beloved and not to win a poetry prize. While this is not to say that all great love poetry has emerged from personal feelings of poets, being genuine and sincere in your expressions will certainly garner more appreciation from your beloved – for whom ultimately your love poem is meant - than any amount of technical correctness.