Wedding ceremony readings
Poems for a wedding ceremony
The wedding poems that are out of copyright, and therefore printable in a ceremony script, are mostly Elizabethan and Victorian: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43, Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose”, Anne Bradstreet, Spenser’s Sonnet 75, Whitman. Each takes between about thirty seconds and two minutes read aloud.
A poem is the part of the ceremony a guest usually reads, which makes length the thing to watch. Two minutes is a long time at the front of a room, and a guest reader has not rehearsed it the way the officiant has.
Where a poem is still in copyright — most twentieth-century work — it is listed by title and author with a note on where to get it, and the reader brings their own printed copy. We do not reproduce those words, not even partially.
23 poems for a wedding ceremony, shortest first
- 10 secondsA Word to HusbandsOgden Nash · Four lines of marriage advice, and the shortest laugh available. Bring it printed.Reader brings a copy
- 15 secondsThe stars about the fair moonSappho, tr. Henry Thornton Wharton · Twenty-five words of Sappho, and every one of them is a compliment. The shortest thing on the shelf — made for a child reader, or a reader who wants one sentence and no more.
- 25 secondsfrom Song of the Open RoadWalt Whitman · Twenty-five seconds, and it ends on a question the couple answer with the vows.
- 30 secondsA BirthdayChristina Rossetti · Pure gladness, and over in half a minute.
- 30 secondsHabitationMargaret Atwood · Nine lines, none of them cosy. For a couple who would rather have it said straight.Reader brings a copy
- 40 secondsThe Summer DayMary Oliver · Ends on "your one wild and precious life" — which is the line the couple are asking for.Reader brings a copy
- 40 secondsTouched by an AngelMaya Angelou · Angelou on love arriving and setting people free. Short, and it fills a room.Reader brings a copy
- 45 secondsA Red, Red RoseRobert Burns · Scots dialect. Give the reader the words in advance so it does not ambush them.
- 45 secondsTo My Dear and Loving HusbandAnne Bradstreet · Written in 1670 and still the plainest statement of the thing.
- 45 secondsi carry your heart with meE. E. Cummings · Short and much loved. The punctuation trips readers — rehearse it.Reader brings a copy
- 45 secondsThis MarriageRumi, in Coleman Barks’s rendering · The most-asked-for Rumi at a wedding. The reader brings a licensed copy — and it is worth naming Barks when you introduce it, because the English is his.Reader brings a copy
- 45 secondsWild GeeseMary Oliver · Opens by letting everyone off the hook, and ends on belonging. A room settles under it.Reader brings a copy
- 50 secondsSonnet 130William Shakespeare · Thirteen lines of insults, then a last couplet that beats every compliment in the book. It teases the sonnets sitting next to it.
- 50 secondsSonnet XVII — "I do not love you as if you were salt-rose"Pablo Neruda · Ask which translation. They are not interchangeable.Reader brings a copy
- 55 secondsSonnet 18William Shakespeare · "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" Everyone half-knows it, which is a help.
- 55 secondsSonnet 43Elizabeth Barrett Browning · "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." The most requested after Sonnet 116.
- a minute and a halfSonnet 116William Shakespeare · "Let me not to the marriage of true minds." Warn your reader: the last two lines need slowing down.
- a minute and a halfSonnet 75Edmund Spenser · "One day I wrote her name upon the strand." She gets the better of him halfway through.
- a minute and a halfThe Road Not TakenRobert Frost · The last three lines are why anybody asks for it. Frost is looking back at a choice from years down the road, which is the view a wedding is borrowing.
- a minute and a halfThe Country of MarriageWendell Berry · For a couple who want something with more weight than the standards.Reader brings a copy
- two minutesThe Owl and the Pussy-catEdward Lear · Nonsense verse the whole room half-remembers, and the one piece here nobody has ever objected to. Made for a child reader.
- two minutesYes, I'll Marry You, My DearPam Ayres · A crowd-pleaser at British weddings. Bring a properly sourced copy — the versions online differ.Reader brings a copy
- 3 minutesHow Falling in Love Is Like Owning a DogTaylor Mali · The dog one. Several minutes long, and it earns them — but your reader needs to rehearse it.Reader brings a copy
Questions
Poems for a wedding ceremony: what is usually chosen?
The wedding poems that are out of copyright, and therefore printable in a ceremony script, are mostly Elizabethan and Victorian: Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43, Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose”, Anne Bradstreet, Spenser’s Sonnet 75, Whitman. Each takes between about thirty seconds and two minutes read aloud.
Which of these can be printed in the script?
12 of the 23 readings on this page carry their full text on their own page, so they can go straight into a ceremony script or an order of service. 11 are still in copyright: we name them with their author and point you at a copy rather than reprinting the words.
Texts last checked .
The reading is two minutes. The ceremony is the rest of it.
Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole thing written out — the welcome, their story, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — with your chosen readings already in place and the timing worked out around them.