Love, actually – Valentine’s Day 2021
21st January 2021
Here and now, in January 2021, we can see the days getting longer and lighter at the same time as Covid-19 does its best to make them shorter and darker. To play out part in tipping more light into the balance, we’re thinking this week about the light of love in all its forms. What better time to say ‘I love you’ than now? And who better to help us to say it than the poets?
We’ve created a performance gallery where you can enjoy some of the fantastic recitations of love poems by former Poetry By heart contestants. Be blown away by Jordanah’s powerful performance of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s ‘Invitation to Love’, then prepare to be completely charmed by Will, Wardah, Sarah, William, Jack and Clover reciting their selection of poems.
We hope these seven performances might inspire you or your students to learn a love poem for Valentine’s Day. One of our very favourite poetry recitation teacher-stories is this. A teacher told her year 10 boys that learning a poem by heart and reciting it on Valentine’s Day was a great way to impress the objects of their affections. They were highly sceptical but intrigued. Next lesson, a lad walked into class and shrugged, “it worked Miss”. We love that story!
Below we’ve curated three little clusters of love poems from across the Poetry By Heart website for you to enjoy and explore, to share in class or it at home. We’d love to hear what you would add, subtract or substitute in the clusters – tweet, call or email us your suggestions.
Friends and Family
Raymond Antrobus, ‘Happy Birthday Moon’
Dad reads aloud. I follow his finger across the page
Valerie Bloom, ‘Granny Is’
Granny is
Berlie Doherty, If You Were A Carrot
If you were a carrot
Ted Hughes, ‘Cat’,
You need your Cat
E. Pauline Johnson, ‘Lullaby of the Iroquois’,
Little brown baby-bird, lapped in your nest
Jackie Kay, ‘Double Trouble’
We were rich and poor
Grace Nichols,‘Praise Song for my Mother’
You were
Classic love
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ‘How Do I Love Thee/ Sonnets From The Portuguese’
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
John Clare, ‘First Love’
I ne’er was struck before that hour
John Donne, ‘The Good Morrow’
I wonder by my troth, what thou and I
Christopher Marlowe, ‘The Passionate Shepherd To His Love’
Come live with me and be my love
Walter Raleigh, ‘The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd’,
If all the world and love were young
William Shakespeare, ‘Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?’
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Philip Sidney, ‘Song From Arcadia’
My true-love hath my heart and I have his
Modern love
Carol-Ann Duffy, ‘December’
The year dwindles and glows
Ian Duhig, ‘From The Irish’
According to Dinneen, a Gael unsurpassed
Paul Dunbar, ‘Invitation To Love’
Come when the nights are bright with stars
Mick Imlah, ‘Maren’
You saw so much romance in competition
Jackie Kay, ‘Dusting the Phone’
I am spending my time imagining the worst that could happen
Edwin Morgan, ‘Strawberries’
There were never strawberries
Alice Oswald, ‘Wedding’,
From time to time our love is like a sail