Wedding reading
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 50 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay, The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persever That when we live no more, we may live ever.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
Where it comes from
Wikisource’s Anne Bradstreet page describes her as the first American woman poet to have her works published, and lists two books: The Tenth Muse (1650) and Several Poems (1678).
What it says
A wife speaks directly to her husband and makes a simple claim: if two people were ever one, it is the two of us. She challenges other wives to compare their happiness with hers. She values his love more than gold or all the riches of the East, and her own love is so strong that rivers cannot put it out; nothing but his love in return could repay it. She cannot repay his love herself, so she prays that heaven will. The closing couplet asks them both to keep loving so steadily in this life that they will live on after it.
Written in 1670 and still the plainest statement of the thing. Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: plain devotion · two made one · short · the first American poet · a second marriage.
Who it suits
Couples who want something short, sincere and direct, without elaborate imagery. It suits a Christian service and a civil one, since its faith is quiet. Because it is written from a wife to a husband, it fits best when the reader is the bride or someone reading on her behalf; for other couples it can be adapted with their agreement. Long-married couples renewing vows often find it fits them better than poems about new love.
Where it goes in the ceremony
It is short enough to be read by one partner to the other just before the vows, or by a friend or family member as one of two readings. It also works well at a vow renewal, read by the person who has been married longest in the family.
Reading it aloud
The text on this page is 103 words. At a ceremony pace of about 130 words a minute, which is slower than conversation, that comes to about 50 seconds of reading.
- The poem is in rhyming couplets. Let the rhymes land, but read for sense, pausing at the punctuation rather than at the end of every line.
- “Compare with me, ye women, if you can” is playful. A small smile in the voice helps it.
- “Persever” is the old spelling of persevere, pronounced to rhyme with “ever”. Practice it so the final couplet lands cleanly.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “To My Dear and Loving Husband” take to read aloud?
“To My Dear and Loving Husband” takes about 50 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “To My Dear and Loving Husband”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” runs about 50 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “To My Dear and Loving Husband” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.
Other readings that suit the same service
- Sonnet 43a minute and a halfAnother declaration of love counted out line by line
- from Jane Eyre — ten years marrieda minute and a halfA wife’s description of a long marriage from inside it
- Ecclesiastes 4:9–1240 secondsScripture on why two are better than one
- Touched by an Angel40 secondsMaya Angelou
- A Red, Red Rose45 secondsRobert Burns
- from Song of the Open Road25 secondsWalt Whitman