By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Previously, we offered five classic poems for boyfriends, aware of the difficulties in trying to pick poems ‘for’ a particular gender over another. Here, we’ve been guided by literary tradition as much as anything: what have (mostly male) poets tended to write about, or for, their female beloveds? What have the great poets throughout history written about their girlfriends?
Here are five poems which, we believe, are ideal for reading to a girlfriend to express all those feelings which are often so hard to put into words oneself: to remind them how beautiful they are, or how much we value them, or how much they are loved.