For anyone who loves to read, poetry is the sweet gift of perfect phrase and feeling. To mark World Poetry Day, poetry specialists at London’s Southbank Centre compiled a list of the 50 greatest love poems from the past 50 years. If you’re getting over heartache, or in the early buds of a new romance, the number one poem of all time might just pull at your heart strings. While he might be known for his tumultuous relationship with American writer Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes’ ‘Lovesong’ topped the list. We’ll let the words speak for themselves… Lovesong Ted Hughes He loved her and she loved him His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to He had no other appetite She bit him she gnawed him she sucked She wanted him complete inside her Safe and sure forever and ever Their little cries fluttered into the curtains Her eyes wanted nothing to get away Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows He gripped her hard so that life Should not drag her from that moment He wanted all future to cease He wanted to topple with his arms round her Off that moment’s brink and into nothing Or everlasting or whatever there was Her embrace was an immense press To print him into her bones His smiles were the garrets of a fairy palace Where the real world would never come Her smiles were spider bites So he would lie still till she felt hungry His words were occupying armies Her laughs were an assassin’s attempts His looks were bullets daggers of revenge Her glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets His whispers were whips and jackboots Her kisses were lawyers steadily writing His caresses were the last hooks of a castaway Her love-trick were the grinding of locks And their deep cries crawled over the floors Like an animal dragging a great trap. H/T i100