How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

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 to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
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.

Handwritten in Spencerian calligraphy and illustrated with a single red rose, it makes a wonderful wedding day or wedding anniversary gift.

How to order calligraphy poems

Calligraphy poem design ideas

The vows were lovely and with a little colour and flourishing looked beautiful in calligraphy.

 Wedding vow calligraphy: Brandon & Meghan

Incorporating the wedding colours into the calligraphy lettering is a lovely idea. For Meghan and Brandon this meant dark teal and 22 carat gold leaf.

The calligraphy is written on a parchment paper for a traditional feel (and I hope this comes across in the photographs I’ve shared with you here).

Lettering is in italic calligraphy.

How to order calligraphy poems

Calligraphy poem design ideas

Calligraphy in gaelic – wedding gift

The text reads:

Gu ma fada beò sibh, is ceò às ‘ur taigh

with a translation below of “May yer lum aye reek”

The gaelic phrase is a blessing; it means may your home fires always burn and the wish for the recipient is to have a happy and prosperous home.

A very personal calligraphy gift

This was a wedding gift from a father for his son and daughter-in-law. I was asked to add a little celtic knotwork around the gilded initial letter, which was in 22 carat gold leaf.

How to order calligraphy poems

Calligraphy poem design ideas

As an introduction to the Poems With Love blog, I thought I’d share previous commissions of the same poem in calligraphy today.

Sonnet 116 in italic calligraphy, gold & brown

sonnet 116 in calligraphy

Sonnet 116 contemporary calligraphy design (aqua & pink)

Shakespeare calligraphy poem

This is the calligraphy poem I’m asked to write more than any other:

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

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;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.