~A.A. Milne

A.A. Milne may have been writing his Pooh stories with children in mind, but the quote above speaks to all ages. Nothing is more important to most than a relationship with someone that you can always be sure of.

Poets have written many verses of relationship poems, whether about romantic relationships, friendships, and the relationships between family members.

Love relationships are, of course, the most popular subjects of relationship poems. One such love relationship poem is Emily Dickinson’s “I Gave Myself to Him:”

Dickinson frames the relationship as a transaction, yet does not cheapen the emotion by doing so.

The special relationship between friends is outlined in Khalil Gibran’s “Friendship IXX:”

Although less prevalent in poetry than the poems about romantic relationships, Gibran’s poem is a perfect example of why friendship is a wonderful relationship for poetry.

No poem captures the special relationship between a brother and sister better than William Stode’s “To His Sister:”

In just a few lines, Strode offers the reader great insight into the loving, playful relationship between this offending brother and sister with perhaps less-than-legible handwriting.

Relationship poems help us to both understand and enjoy both the relationships of the verses and the relationships in our own lives by giving us opportunity to examine these relationships through poetry.