Ideas for non-religious wedding readings by famous authors

Great passages to pinch from famous authors And if you are still stuck…

So... having read through our earlier sections of this wedding reading guide, you'll know that even if you have opted for a non-religious or civil wedding ceremony, you will still need to choose suitable wedding readings.

Choose wisely and your reading can add real romance, importance and, if you choose something funny, even humour and giggles to the ceremony.

The choice of readings is up to you; the only rule is that you must make sure you have had them approved by your registrar beforehand.

Rather than breaking out in a sweat at home, we suggest you head for your local library and start the search for your readings by delving into novels and plays by famous authors. After all, they got into print, so they wrote well and why not pinch their hard work?!

Here's some suggestions for you:

Great passages to pinch from famous authors

For a huge selection of over 100 poems, readings and biblical passages see our Wedding Readings Poems & Vows book.

Perfect Woman

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleam’d upon my sight;
A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn;
A dancing shape, an image gat,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
I saw her upon nearer view,
A spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin liberty;
A coumtenance in which did meet
Sweets records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human natures daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly plann’d,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.
But never doubt I love.

Love Lives

John Clare (1793-1864)

Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, which fades like dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, and the true

Love lives in sleep,
The happiness of healthy dreams
Eve’s dews may weep,
But love delightful seems.

‘Tis heard in spring
When light and sunbeams, warm and kind,
On angels’ wing
Bring love and music to the mind.

And where is voice,
So young, so beautiful and sweet
As nature’s choice,
Where Spring and lovers meet?

Love lives beyond
The tomb, the earth, the flowers, and dew.
I love the fond,
The faithful, young and true.

So, we’ll go no more a-roving

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

So, we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outweighs it sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving,
By the light of the moon

My Delight and thy Delight

Robert Bridges (1844-1930)

My delight and thy delight
Walking, like two angels white,
In the gardens of the night:

My desire and they desire
Twining to a tongue of fire,
Leaping live, and laughing higher:

Thro’ the everlasting strife
In the mysteries of life.
Love, form whom the world begun,
Hath the secret of the sun.

Love can tell, and love alone,
Whence the million stars were strewn,
Why each atom knows its own,
How, in spite of woe and death,
Gay is life, and sweet is beath:

This he taught us, this we knew,
Happy in his science true,
Hand in hand as we stood
‘Neath the shadows of the wood,
Heart to heart as we lay
In the dawning of the day

Friendship

Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849)

When we were idlers with the loitering rills,
The need of human love we little noted:
Our love was nature; and the peace that floated
On the white mist,
And dwelt upon the hills,
To sweet accord subdued our wayward wills:
One soul was ours, one mind, one heart devoted,
That, wisely doting, ask’d not why it doted,
And ours the unknown joy, which knowing kills.
But now I find how dear thou wert to me;
That man is more than half of nature’s treasure,
Of that fair beauty which no eye can see,
Of that sweet music which no ear can measure;
And now the streams may sing for others’ pleasure,
The hills sleep on in their eternity.

Love’s Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

The fountains mingle with the rivers
And the rivers with the oceans,
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle.
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother,
And the sunlight clasps the earth
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What is all this sweet work worth
If thou kiss not me?