Barack Obama's love letters to his first girlfriend have just been released and they're every bit as ambitious, charismatic and intellectual as you would imagine.

And obviously nothing like anything we've ever been sent on Valentine's day...

The nine full letters, sent by the former US president to his then college girlfriend, Alexandra McNear, are finally being made public to researchers through Emory University's Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library, according to the Associated Press.

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Barack Obama\'s love letters

Officials said the university has had the letters since 2014, but could only make them public now.

Researchers have described his writings as 'lyrical and poetic', offering a unique insight into the mind of a young man whose path would eventually lead to to the White House, Emory University officials added.

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One excerpt from 1983 to McNear - who was a student at Obama's Californian college - reads:

I think of you often, though I stay confused about my feeling. It seems we will ever want what we cannot have; that's what binds us; that's what keeps us apart.

Excuse us while we swoon.

In another, Obama writes:

My ideas aren't as crystallised as they were while in school, but they have an immediacy and weight that may be more useful if and when I'm less observer and more participant.

Salaries in the community organisations are too low to survive on right now, so I hope to work in some more conventional capacity for a year, allowing me to store up enough nuts to pursue those interests next.

Okay, so that's a little less romantic than we were hoping for but we're still feeling it.

The letters were penned between 1982 and 1984, and were written on stationery as well as ripped-out yellow and white, college-ruled notebook paper.

And while they may not be brimming with romance - we know he has it in him - Emory University professor Andra Gillispie has explained that could be because they were written towards the end of their relationship.

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'This is part of his courtship strategy. Okay ... Who rips out book reviews to send to their girlfriend?' Gillispie laughed.

'I think it is a sign of his proto-feminism but it is -more of a 'Wow, this is really cerebral relationship' but I personally like the idea of a cerebral relationship.

'I'm a nerd too, so the nerd in me was like, 'That was real cool".'

Be still our beating hearts.

Additional reporting by AP.

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Naomi Gordon

Naomi Gordon is news writer mainly covering entertainment news with a focus on celebrity interviews and television.