If you haven't got the cash to splash this V-Day, it doesn't matter in the slightest. After all, love doesn't have to cost anything at all! Back in the olden days, there was nothing more romantic than a good old fashioned slice of poetry, and we reckon your man would love to be recited to. So stand on the sofa, take a deep breath and pull one of these from your memory on Feb 14!

If you're just feeling so utterly delightful with all that Cupid's given you...

Love Is Enough

Love is enough: though the world be a-waning,
And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,
Though the skies be too dark for dim eyes to discover
The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,
Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder,
And this day draw a veil over all deeds passed over,
Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter:
The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter
These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.

William Morris (1834-96)

If you're thinking about the future and simply can't see an end to your eternal happiness (even when you think about your bloke eventually wetting the bed)...

When You Are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And his face amid a crowd of stars.

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

If you're feeling so incredibly passionate by night that the daytime rays of sun seem troublesome...

Wild Nights

Wild nights. Wild nights!
Were I with thee,
Wild nights should be
Our luxury!
Futile the winds
To a heart in port
Done with the compass
Done with the chart.
Rowing in Eden.
Ah, the sea.
Might I but moor
Tonight with thee!

by Emily Dickinson

If you want to remind him how much he means to you, even though you've been together for ages...

The First Day

I wish I could remember the first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me;
If bright or dim the season it might be;
Summer or winter for aught I can say.
So, unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was i to see and to forsee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom, yet, for many a May.
If only I could recollect it!
Such A day of days!
I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow.
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much!
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand! - Did one but know!

by Christina Rossetti

If you've only been together for a while but feel pretty good about things so far...

O Mistress Mine

O Mistress mine, where are you roaming?
O, stay and hear; your true love's coming,
That can sing both high and low:
Trip no further, pretty sweeting;
Journeys end in lovers meeting,

Every wise man's son doth know.
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

by William Shakespeare