Over the centuries, love letters have been used by lovers to express their feelings to each other. The most famous examples tend to be for women, but men have received their fair share of love letters as well.
Love letters are in danger of dying out in today’s world of instant messaging, skype, and other communication advances. However, as nice as these are, there is something about having a letting in your hands, being able to read the words written to your by a loved one that truly expresses emotion and brings a couple closer.
Figuring out where to start writing a love letter to a man may be difficult, so here are some famous examples of love letters written for men.
Oscar Wilde to Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas
My Own Boy,
Your sonnet is quite lovely, and it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days.
Why are you alone in London, and when do you go to Salisbury? Do go there to cool your hands in the grey twilight of Gothic things, and come here whenever you like. It is a lovely place and lacks only you; but go to Salisbury first.
Always, with undying love, yours,
Oscar
Catherine of Aragon to Henry VIII
My Lord and Dear Husband,
I commend me unto you. The hour of my death draweth fast on, and my case being such, the tender love I owe you forceth me, with a few words, to put you in remembrance of the health and safeguard of your soul, which you ought to prefer before all worldly matters, and before the care and tendering of your own body, for the which you have cast me into many miseries and yourself into many cares.
For my part I do pardon you all, yea, I do wish and devoutly pray God that He will also pardon you.
For the rest I commend unto you Mary, our daughter, beseeching you to be a good father unto her, as I heretofore desired. I entreat you also, on behalf of my maids, to give them marriage-portions, which is not much, they being but three. For all my other servants, I solicit a year’s pay more than their due, lest they should be unprovided for.
Lastly, do I vow, that mine eyes desire you above all things.
Abagail Adams to John Adams
Should I draw you the picture of my heart it would be what I hope you would still love though it contained nothing new. The early possession you obtained there, and the absolute power you have obtained over it, leaves not the smallest space unoccupied.
I look back to the early days of our acquaintance and friendship as to the days of love and innocence, and, with an indescribable pleasure, I have seen near a score of years roll over our heads with an affection heightened and improved by time, nor have the dreary years of absence in the smallest degree effaced from my mind the image of the dear untitled man to whom I gave my heart.
Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo
If only I were a clever woman, I could describe to you my gorgeous bird, how you unite in yourself the beauties of form, plumage, and song!
I would tell you that you are the greatest marvel of all ages, and I should only be speaking the simple truth. But to put all this into suitable words, my superb one, I should require a voice far more harmonious than that which is bestowed upon my species – for I am the humble owl that you mocked at only lately, therefore, it cannot be.
I will not tell you to what degree you are dazzling and to the birds of sweet song who, as you know, are none the less beautiful and appreciative.
I am content to delegate to them the duty of watching, listening and admiring, while to myself I reserve the right of loving; this may be less attractive to the ear, but it is sweeter far to the heart.
I love you, I love you. My Victor; I can not reiterate it too often; I can never express it as much as I feel it.
I recognize you in all the beauty that surrounds me in form, in colour, in perfume, in harmonious sound: all of these mean you to me. You are superior to all. I see and admire – you are all!
You are not only the solar spectrum with the seven luminous colours, but the sun himself, that illumines, warms, and revivifies! This is what you are, and I am the lowly woman that adores you.
Juliette
So now that you have some ideas from famous love letters written for men, it’s time to start your own. The first question is what medium you want to use. While typing out a letter on the computer may be quicker and easier to correct mistakes it doesn’t have the same level of intimacy that a handwritten letter can have. Handwriting your letter shows that you took time and effort. It it easier to be sloppy when writing by hand, so make sure you take the time to write cleanly and legibly.
Don’t worry about the length of your letter. The intent is to be honest, not satisfy a minimum word count. Along with making sure that you are honest, use friendly, everyday language. If you write a letter that uses words that are far out of your normal vocabulary, it may come across as mocking rather than sincere, which is what you really want.
There are a lot of reasons for you to write a love letter to the special man in your life. Whether he is away for some time, going away, or you just want to do something special to show him how much you appreciate him, writing a letter is a way you can give him something that can be read over and over again for years to come.
