Are these the greatest love poems of all time?

Poetry specialists at London’s Southbank Centre have compiled a list of the 50 bestloved poems from the past 50 years. Here are 10 to pluck at your heartstrings.

1. Ted Hughes: Lovesong

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

Read the rest here.

2. Maya Angelou: Come And Be My Baby

The highway is full of big cars going nowhere fast And folks is smoking anything that'll burn

Read the rest here.

3. Margaret Atwood: Variations on the Word Love

This is a word we use to plug holes with. It's the right size for those warm blanks in speech, for those red heart- shaped vacancies on the page that look nothing like real hearts.

Read the rest here.

4. Don Paterson: My Love

It’s not the lover that we love, but love itself, love as in nothing, as in O;

Read the rest here.

5. Frank O’Hara: Having a Coke With You

is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

Read the rest here.

6. Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Before You Came

Before you came things were just what they were: the road precisely a road, the horizon fixed, the limit of what could be seen, a glass of wine was no more than a glass of wine.

Read the rest here.

7. Chinua Achebe: Love Song (for Anna)

Bear with me my love in the hour of my silence;

Read the rest here (link opens a Word document).

8. Warsan Shire: For Women Who Are Difficult To Love

you are a horse running alone and he tries to tame you compares you to an impossible highway to a burning house

Read the rest here.

9. Annabelle Despard: Should You Die First

Let me at least collect your smells as specimens: your armpits, woollen sweater,

Read the rest here.

10. Vikram Seth: All You who Sleep Tonight

All you who sleep tonight Far from the ones you love, No hand to left or right And emptiness above -

Read the rest here.

More: Read the full list.