Wedding readings for a ceremony: poems and passages

Good wedding readings are short, easy to say aloud and free to use. These nine are in the public domain, each with a credit line, a word count and a reading time. Pick two, copy them with the credit, and send the shortlist to the friends you want to ask. Reading times use 130 words per minute, our assumption.

Every card below has a Copy button that takes the text and the credit line together. Paste it into a message to your reader, or into your ceremony program. Nothing you do here is sent to us.

Reading table: nine public-domain passages with source and time

Table: nine readings with word count and time aloud (our estimate, assumptions below)

Assumptions: words are counted on the card, so they include the credit line. Time is words divided by 130 words per minute, our assumption, rounded. A published range for comfortable presentation pace is 100 to 150 words per minute, so 130 sits inside it. Poetry read with feeling is often slower, so keep some slack.

How to choose by tone and length

You came to filter by length and tone, so here is the same filter in plain lists. Each name matches a card further down.

By length

1. Under 80 words, under 40 seconds: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Ruth 1:16-17, Song of Solomon 8:6-7.
2. 80 to 120 words, up to about a minute: Sonnet 116, Sonnet 18, A Red, Red Rose, A Birthday, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.
3. Over 120 words, a full minute or more: Sonnet 43.

By tone

1. Classic romance: Sonnet 116, Sonnet 18, Sonnet 43.
2. Warm and playful: A Red, Red Rose, A Birthday.
3. Faith: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Ruth 1:16-17, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, Song of Solomon 8:6-7. If the ceremony is not religious, start with the secular selections instead, or see the page of secular readings.

Choose by who reads, too. A confident speaker can carry a sonnet. A nervous friend does better with a short text of plain words.

The nine readings

Each line sits on its own line in the card. Tap Copy and the whole text, with its credit, goes to your clipboard.

Sonnet 116, 114 words, 53 sec

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116, 1609

A calm, confident choice for a couple who want something classic. It opens with the word impediments, which echoes a question some officiants ask before vows. Editions differ in spelling and punctuation. Pick one and print exactly that one.

Sonnet 18, 119 words, 55 sec

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18, 1609

Light and affectionate, and a good fit for a summer ceremony. The last two lines promise the beloved will live on in the poem. It is a compliment to one person, so the reader may want to look at the couple on the final line.

Sonnet 43, 133 words, 1 min

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnet 43, 1850

The longest here and the most openly emotional. The repeated “I love thee” gives a nervous reader a steady rhythm. It mentions God in the second half of the last stanza. Skip it if the ceremony is fully secular.

A Red, Red Rose, 116 words, 54 sec

O my Luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve is like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel a while,
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose, late 1700s

Warm, musical and a little playful. Scots words such as luve and gang dry are fun to hear. The final stanza is a farewell. A reader can stop after the third stanza, but then the card word count above no longer applies.

A Birthday, 113 words, 52 sec

My heart is like a singing bird
Whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple-tree
Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
That paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.

Christina Rossetti, A Birthday, 1862 collection

Joyful rather than solemn. The images are bright and easy to picture, which helps guests who only hear it once. The second stanza has unusual words such as dais and vair. Check the reader can say them without stumbling.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 63 words, 29 sec

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth.

King James Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

The most familiar text at ceremonies, and the shortest here. In this old translation the word charity means love. It is scripture, so it suits a faith ceremony best. Guests may know it by heart and notice any slip.

Ruth 1:16-17, 72 words, 33 sec

Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge:
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

King James Bible, Ruth 1:16-17

A promise of loyalty that works well just before the vows. The spoken pace can slow down on “where thou diest”. In the story, Ruth speaks to her mother-in-law Naomi, not to a spouse. Some guests will know that.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, 83 words, 38 sec

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

King James Bible, Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

A practical, warm text about partnership: two people, one cord. It is good for couples who like plain talk over romance. The line about lying together for warmth is literal in the text. Read it straight and guests will take it kindly.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7, 75 words, 35 sec

Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

King James Bible, Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Intense and brief. “Love is strong as death” is a line that stays with people. It uses old words such as thine and contemned. The reader should know that contemned means despised.

Will it fit your ceremony slot?

Many officiants ask for a time limit per reading. Here is what fits in each slot at our assumed pace.

Worked example: two readings in one ceremony

Say you want two voices: a relative with a faith text and a friend with a poem. Add the words, convert to time, then add 15 seconds per reader for the walk up and the pause. That 15 seconds is our own estimate.

Use the last column when you build the order of events. If your ceremony runs short, a full ceremony script shows where each reading sits next to the vows, and the hour-by-hour day plan shows what the extra minutes do to your photo and cocktail times.

Asking a friend to read

The ask is the hardest part. Make it easy to say yes and easy to say no. Copy this and change the brackets.

Hi [Name], we would love for you to read at our ceremony. It takes about a minute. We picked [reading name], and I can send the text with the credit line. Say yes or no, either one is completely fine.

Send your shortlist to your partner first. Then compare picks before you ask anyone.

Here are the nine wedding readings with how long each takes. Pick your top two and I will pick mine. Then we compare and choose together.

If you also want to hear what your partner promises, read some vow examples together and decide whether a reading should come before or after them.

Mistakes that trip readers

1. Choosing by looks, not by sound. Some texts read beautifully on a page and trip the tongue. Fix: have the reader say it aloud twice before it goes in the program.
2. No credit line. Guests wonder whose words they heard. Fix: the reader says the author and title in one short line, or the program prints them.
3. Reading from a phone. It glares, locks and buzzes. Fix: print the text large, double spaced, on one sheet.
4. Picking a text with a message you do not share. Each text carries beliefs, from faith to farewell. Fix: read all of it once and check that every line fits you.
5. Using modern poems without checking rights. Fix: stay with public-domain texts for printed programs, or ask the publisher.

Print readings in your program

Put the title and author under each reading in your ceremony program. For a Christian service, the Christian ceremony text shows where scripture readings usually go. Add the readings to your planning checklist with a date for asking the reader and a date for sending the text.

Where the texts come from

The wording above was checked against the pages listed under Sources. Editions of old texts vary in spelling and punctuation, so your printed copy may differ from another book. Pick one edition and use it everywhere. The public-domain status of these texts is a general US statement, not legal advice.

Save for later

Pin it now and find it when you are ready to plan.

Save to Pinterest (opens in a new tab)

Updated November 5, 2026 by bigdaydesk editorial