Do you need some beautiful Italian love poems to include in your wedding vows or a love letter? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
Italy is so rich in art and history that many of its towns and cities are like open-air museums rather than functional locales. Poetry written in the Italian language is a great way to gain insight and appreciation for the rich history and stunning aesthetics of this country.
Inspiring both romance and solace for lovers and the heartbroken for centuries, Italian love poems have a long and storied tradition.
Many great poems from various cultures exist, but most of the best ones deal with themes of love, loss, and living.
Italy is no exception, and its vivid poetry throughout the centuries is one of the reasons why the country is frequently associated with romance.
If you’re looking for some beautiful Italian love poems to include in your wedding vows or a love letter, this post is perfect for you.
We’ve compiled a list of the most beautiful Italian poems about love, along with information about the poets who wrote them and their English translations.
10 Best Italian Love Poems
Here are 10 of the best Italian love poems you can use for your love letter or include in your wedding vows.
1. Carme 5, from Liber
Author: Gaius Valerius Catullus
Year published: mid-1300s
The Latin poet Gaius Valerius Catullus was born into a wealthy family in the city of Verona in the year 84 BC. At the age of 16, he moved to Rome to complete his education and joined the poeti novi, which was the poetic circle of the neoteroi.
Catullus encountered the woman with whom he fell in love and who served as the inspiration for his love poems while he was in Rome. This woman was named Clodia. However, Catullus referred to her as “Lesbia” in his works, sort of a comparison with the Greek poetess Sappho.
“Lesbia” was older by ten years and lived a very carefree lifestyle, both of which contributed to her multiple betrayals of the poet.
Let us live, O my Lesbia, and love each other,
– “Carme 5,” from Liber by Catillus
And the rumors of the stern old men
Let us consider them all worth a dime.
Suns can set and rise again;
we, when once for good this brief light ends,
must sleep one eternal night.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then a thousand more, then a hundred again,
then without ceasing another thousand, then a hundred;
then, when we have given each other many thousands,
We will confuse them indeed not, lest we know
And so that no evil can look at us wrongly,
knowing that we have given each other so many kisses.
2. Sonnet III, from “Canzoniere” (or “Rime in vita e morte di Madonna Laura”)
Author: Petrarch (Francesco Petrarca)
Year published: mid-1300s
Francesco Petrarca, or better known as Petrarch, wrote “Canzoniere” (or “Rime in vita e morte di Madonna Laura”), also called “Petrarch’s Sonnets” in English, was inspired by his unrequited love for a young woman he first saw in a church and who was married to another man: Laura, thought to be Frenchwoman Laura de Noves.
Petrarca wrote 366 sonnets to Laura, some while she was alive and some after her death from the plague, praising her spiritual beauty and purity while acknowledging her very real nature as a source of temptation.
It was the day the sun’s rays had turned pale
with pity for the suffering of his Maker
when I was caught, and I put up no fight,
my lady, for your lovely eyes, had bound me.
It seemed no time to be on guard against
Love’s blows; therefore, I went my way
secure and fearless — so, all my misfortunes
began in midst of universal woe.Love found me all disarmed and found the way
was clear to reach my heart down through the eyes
which have become the halls and doors of tears.It seems to me it did him little honor
– Sonnet III, from “Canzoniere” by Petrarch
to wound me with his arrow in my state
and to you, armed, not show his bow at all.
3. Sonnet XIII, from “Canzoniere” (or “Rime in vita e morte di Madonna Laura”)
Author: Francesco Petrarca
Year Published: mid-1300s
During his life, Petrarch perfected the sonnet, pushing new boundaries by depicting a woman as a real earthly being rather than merely an angelic muse. He is widely regarded as one of the first romantic poets and is profoundly moved by amorous and spiritual poetry.
It is generally agreed that the sonnet, a lyric poem that consists of 14 lines and has a set pattern of rhyme, best represents early Italian poetry. This is Petrarch’s Sonnet XIII, which is well-known for its distinctive musicality.
Today it remains one of the most popular Italian poems.
When Love within her lovely face appears
now and again among the other ladies,
as much as each is less lovely than she
the more my wish I love within me grows.
I bless the place, the time, and the hour of the day
that my eyes aimed their sights at such a height,
and say: “My soul, you must be very grateful
that you were found worthy of such great honor.From her to you comes loving thought that leads,
as long as you pursue, the highest good,
esteeming little what all men desire;there comes from her all joyous honesty
– Sonnet XIII, from “Canzoniere” by Petrarch
that leads you by the straight path up to Heaven —
already I fly high upon my hope.
4. Poem from Chapter 26 of La Vita Nuova
Author: Dante Alighieri
Year Published: around the late 1200s
Dante Alighieri penned The Divine Comedy, the most translated Italian work in the world. He met the poet Guido Cavalcanti when he was a young man when Florence was a political and cultural center of the first magnitude. They became fast friends and eventually established the Dolce Stil Novo school of poetry together.
Dante’s first love, Beatrice Portinari (nicknamed Bice), for whom he wrote his earliest poems, also passed away at a young age. The story of their love is told in La Vita Nuova, a collection of prose and poetry.
So gentle and so honest seems
– Chapter 26 of “Vita Nova” by Dante Alighieri
my woman when she greets others,
that every tongue becomes trembling mute,
and eyes do not dare to look.
She goes, hearing herself lauded,
benevolently of humility clothed;
and seems as if it were a thing come
from heaven to earth to show miracles.
She shows herself so delightful to those who gaze upon her,
that it gives the eyes a sweetness to the heart,
that no one who cannot try it can understand it
and it seems that from her lip there moves
a gentle spirit full of love,
which goes saying to the soul: Sigh.
5. “Avete ’n vo’ li fior’ e la verdura” (“You Have, in You, the Leaves and Flowers”)
Author: Guido Cavalcanti
Year Published: late 1200s
One of the most well-known Italian poets, Guido Cavalcanti was born in the city of Florence. It is generally agreed that he was one of the first poets to write in the “sweet new style” (dolce stile nuovo) that was popular in Italy in the late 13th century.
The majority of his poetry, however, was focused on love, although it was frequently depicted in a more sinister and aggressive light in his writing. His method of personifying spirits was adopted by a great number of other poets, the most famous of whom was Dante.
You have, in you, the leaves and flowers
All that shines and all that’s sweet to see:
Greater than the sun your face in splendor,
Who sees you not can never worthy be.
In this world, there is no creature
So pleasing or so full of beauty:
And he is led, who holds love in terror,
By your face, to desire such inwardly.Each woman who is with you pleases me,
– “You Have, in You, the Leaves and Flowers” by Guido Cavalcanti
Through the love you show towards her:
And I pray to her, of her courtesy,
She who can do so best do you most honor.
And shows great care for your sovereignty,
For you are the queen of all who are there.
6. XLVII: “Amor m’ha fatto tal, ch’io vivo in foco” (206: “Love has made me like one that lives in flame”)
Author: Gaspara Stampa
Year Published: around the mid-1500s
Gaspara Stampa gained fame as a “free and unprejudiced life-loving musician and singer endowed with great intellectual vivacity and extraordinary beauty.” However, some accounts claim Gaspara Stampa was a prominent courtesan.
She had a three-year emotionally draining affair with the nobleman Collatino da Collalto, and the experiences were in much of her poetry. Sadly, the count did not feel the same way and ended their relationship when he entered the service of the King of France.
Stampa’s poetry has an authentic, original tone, full of feeling that the lines themselves can’t always express.
Gaspara Stampa’s short life ended at the age of 31, but among her accomplishments was that she is responsible for some of the finest examples of Italian love poetry.
Love has made me like one who lives in flame.
– “Love has made me like one that lives in flame” by Gaspara Stampa
To the world I’m some new Salamander;
Nor less strange than that eternal creature
That lives and dies, its nest and pyre the same.
This is all my joy and all my delight,
To live while burning, and ne’er feel the pain,
And, to him who did this, ne’er complain,
Nor seek his slightest pity, day or night.
Scarcely was that first ardor spent in me,
When Love lit another, that doth so thrive –
For I’ll ne’er repent of loving ardently –
Tis like to prove more fruitful, more alive,
If he who’s newly seized my heart will be
Content, nor yet to damp my ardor strive.
7. “Non sono in queste rive” (“Are Not in These Shores”)
Author: Torquato Tasso
Year Published: late 1500s
The Italian poet Torquato Tasso is widely regarded as one of the most significant figures to emerge from the late Renaissance period. His most famous work is the heroic epic poem titled “Gerusalemme liberata,“ and up until the 20th century, he was considered to be one of Europe’s most well-known and widely read poets.
One of the many challenging aspects of Tasso’s life was his incarceration in Ferrara. In later years, he struggled even more with mental illness, and sadly, he was never able to recover completely from it.
In one of his most well-known poems, the poet tells a brief but endearing story of love in which the subject of the poem is compared to nature and its beauty.
Are not on these shores
– “Are Not in These Shores” by Torquato Tasso
crimson flowers
like the lips of my lady,
in the sound of the summer breeze
amidst fountains, and roses and lilies
does its song make the sweetest harmony?
Song that inflames, and pleases me,
may you be interrupted only by our kisses.
8. “La Notte Bella” (“The Beautiful Night”), from L’Allegria
Author: Giuseppe Ungaretti
Year Published: 1916
Giuseppe Ungaretti was a major figure in the development of 20th-century Italian literature. He wrote extensively as a poet, journalist, essayist, academic, and public servant.
His life was full of exciting experiences, including stops in Egypt, France, and Italy for schooling.
His most famous and cherished works appeared in print for the first time during the First World War. Later in life, he taught modern literature at the University of Rome and introduced hermeticism to the academic world.
“La Notte Bella,” his most well-known work, is an ode to the wonders of the night sky and to the joy of falling in love.
What song has risen tonight
and woven
the crystal echo of a heart
into the starsWhat sudden holiday
of this reveling heart
I had been
a pool of darkNow I bite
space
like a child the breastNow I am
– “The Beautiful Night” by Giuseppe Ungaretti
universe-drunk
9. “Non Andartene” (“Don’t Go Away”)
Author: Mario Luzi
Year Published: 2004
A native Florentine, Mario Luzi was born in 1914 in the town of Castello. He studied at the University of Florence’s Faculty of Letters, where he co-founded the journal Il Frontespizio, which became the literary voice of the Hermetic movement.
He left Tuscany for Parma and Rome after completing his degree in French Literature but eventually settled back there with his new wife.
His poetry reflects the influence of French symbolism from authors like Mallarmé and Rimbaud.
Luzi’s collection Doctrine of the Extreme Beginner, from which “Don’t Go Away” is taken, was published in 2004 — the same year he turned 90 — and he was appointed senator for life. In the poem, the speaker declares his or her inability to let go of any trace of a lost loved one, even in the form of memories.
Don’t go away,
don’t leave
the eclipse of you
in my room.Who is looking for you is the sun,
no pity for your absence has
the sun, it also finds you in casual
places
where you have passed,
in the places, you left
and in those where you are
inadvertently gone,
it burns
and equates
to nothing all
your busy day.However it was,
– “Don’t Go Away” by Mario Luzi
it was,
none of its hour
is cancelled out.
10. “Ieri Sera Era Amore” (“Last Night Was Love”)
Author: Alda Merini
Year Published: 1984
Poet Alda Merini is revered as Italy’s distinguished female poet. She won the Young Italian Women Poets Award at the tender age of 10.
Her early poetry demonstrated a natural gift for the craft. She eventually carried her poetry with her throughout her lifetime, as her therapists and doctors both recommended it as a form of treatment for her mental health issues.
Her masterpiece, The Holy Land, was published in 1984. According to another poet Paolo di Stefano, “For Merini, the verses had to come out in a rush, like a stream of blood from an ever-open wound.”
She wrote “Ieri Sera Era Amore” – one of the best love poems from Italy – about her husband Ettore, a wealthy baker whom she wed when she was 22. He was a total opposite in a way that he had no appreciation for poetry.
Last night it was love,
– “Last Night Was Love” by Alda Merini
you and me in life
fleeting and fugitive
with one kiss and one mouth
as in an abstract painting:
you and me in love
side by side, majestically.
I bejeweled you and told it:
but my feeling
faded in words.