Sad Love Letter Collection: 10 Sad Love Letters By Famous People

By Sreoshi SenguptaSreoshi Sengupta  • 

If you are feeling too dejected and depressed in love, do not lose heart. If you go down the pages of history, then you will know that there are many famous people and exemplary people who have also gone through the pain and anguish of love. Take a look at our collection of sad love letters by famous people and have heart that your love will be requited too.

1. Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn

On turning over in my mind the contents of your last letters, I have put myself into great agony, not knowing how to interpret them, whether to my disadvantage, as you show in some places, or to my advantage, as I understand them in some others, beseeching you earnestly to let me know expressly your whole mind as to the love between us two. It is absolutely necessary for me to obtain this answer, having been for above a whole year stricken with the dart of love, and not yet sure whether I shall fail of finding a place in your heart and affection.

One of the most tumultuous relationships shared by any royalty is that of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, an epic tale of real love. Here, in this sad love letter, Henry VIII is desperately trying to convince Ann to accept his love and his pain and anguish can be clearly read through this letter he had addressed to Anne for her answer.

2. Jimi Hendrix to an unknown woman

Little girl,

Happiness is within you…. So unlock the chains from your heart and let yourself grow like the sweet flower you are…
I know the answer — just spread your wings and set yourself free.

It is a poignant sad love letter that not only shows the anguish of the lover but also the hope and faith he has on himself and on that stranger girl with whom he fell in love. Jimi knew that he will never meet this girl ever again or know her name or anything about her. Still, he loves her too deeply and wishes the best for her.

[Read More: Sorry Love Letter ]

3. John Keats to Fanny Brawne

My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you — I am forgetful of everything but seeing you again — my Life seems to stop there — I see no further. You have absorbed me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving — I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you. I should be afraid to separate myself far from you….

I would be martyred for my Religion — Love is my religion — I could die for that – I could die for you. My Creed is Love and you are its only tenet — you have ravished me away by a Power I cannot resist.

He is one of the most famous romantic poets of his time. His deep and relentless love is well portrayed in his poems and the sad love letters he wrote to Fanny in his brief life of just twenty five years. This sad love letter also shows his pain and sorrow of how he won’t be there to cherish her love for a lifetime, but that only makes his love immortal.

4. Nathaniel Hawthorne to Sophia Peabody

How did I love before I knew you — before I possessed your affection! I reckon upon your love as something that is to endure when everything that can perish has perished — though my trust is sometimes mingled with fear, because I feel myself unworthy of your love. But if I am worthy of it you will always love me; and if there be anything good and pure in me, it will be proved by my always loving you.

It is an amazing love letter by the famous writer Nathaniel Hawthorne to his lady love where he expresses his sadness and laments on how unworthy he is of her love, but still hopes and she will accept him. it makes for a sensible addition to a letter, if you’re sorry for hurting the one you love.

5. Abigail Adams to John Adams

Should I draw you the picture of my Heart, it would be what I hope you would Love; though it contained nothing new; the early possession you obtained there; and the absolute power you have ever maintained 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.

It is a sad love letter written by Abigail to John Adams which reflects upon the impossibility of love, the pain and struggles and how she will overcome all obstacles to be one with her love. This letter is truly the one that speaks of a woman’s anguish and desperation for a love which she knows is impossible and forbidden. It is bery much like an unrequited love poem.

[Read More: One Sided Love SMS]

6. Johnny Cash to June Carter Cash

We get old and get used to each other. We think alike. We read each other’s minds. We know what the other one wants without asking. Sometimes we irritate each other a little bit. Maybe sometimes take each other for granted.

But once in a while, like today, I meditate on it and realize how lucky I am to share my life with the greatest woman I ever met. You still fascinate and inspire me. You influence me for the better. You’re the object of my desire, the #1 earthly reason for my existence. I love you very much.

This sad love letter is a lover’s ardent desire to finally find love in the eyes of his lady. He is literally in physical pain as his heart wrenches at the prospect of separation from his partner and he fears the age, the time when they no longer are there to share such a beautiful relationship called love.

7. Beethoven to his “Immortal Beloved”

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm — love me — today — yesterday — what tearful longings for you — you — you — my life — my all — farewell. Oh continue to love me — never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours.

It is one of the most famous sad letters that Beethoven has written which reflects on his love life, his desire for his love and his desperation to be loved by the one. Even though he gives a farewell to his love through this tragic sad love letter, he cannot hide his pain and agony of separation and also states that whatever happens, she will always be his in his heart. One of the most iconic love letters to girlfriends of all time.

8. Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning

It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what you are to me — the fullness must be in proportion, you know, to the vacancy…and only I know what was behind — the long wilderness without the blossoming rose…and the capacity for happiness, like a black gaping hole, before this silver flooding. Is it wonderful that I should stand as in a dream, and disbelieve—not you—but my own fate?

Was ever any one taken suddenly from a lampless dungeon and placed upon the pinnacle of a mountain, without the head turning round and the heart turning faint, as mine do? And you love me more, you say? …. How shall I ever prove what my heart is to you? How will you ever see it as I feel it?

Theirs was an exemplary love story that is cherished through centuries. So ardent was their love for each other that they moved mountains, rejected their families and moved to a foreign country too, just to be together. And all that in spite of the huge age difference. Here, in this sad love letter, she has laid her soul bare and her heart cut open showing pathos and anguish for his love.

[Read More: Inspirational Love Poems]

9. Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine du Beauharnais

Since I left you, I have been constantly depressed. My happiness is to be near you. Incessantly I live over in my memory your caresses, your tears, and your affectionate solicitude. The charms of the incomparable Josephine kindle continually a burning and a glowing flame in my heart…. I thought that I loved you months ago, but since my separation from you I feel that I love you a thousand fold more. Each day since I knew you, have I adored you more and more.

It is the most epic and heartfelt sad letter you can read. Napoleon, the famous ruler, though otherwise always strong and iron willed, breaks down writing this letter to his lady love as he just cannot bear the separation from her which is surely something that we can all relate to still now.

10. Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor

My blind eyes are desperately waiting for the sight of you. You don’t realize of course, E.B., how fascinatingly beautiful you have always been, and how strangely you have acquired an added and special and dangerous loveliness.

It is a very ardent and anguished sad love letter by Burton to his ex-wife and lover, Elizabeth Taylor, the famous Hollywood actress of yesteryears. In this letter, he portrays his pain of how he is waiting to see her and appreciates her lovely beauty and how she had cast a permanent spell on him.

Could you relate to any of these sad love letters written by these famous people? Want to share your words and opinions with us too? Please share your thoughts by commenting below.

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