Valentine

VALENTINE

Old Custom, which to-day allows
Addresses such as this ;
When timid lovers breathe their vows,
And sing of promised bliss ;
Emboldens one, who else would fear
To make his feelings known,
To whisper in the fair one's ear
A sorrow - all his own.

Old Custom says, that rhyming words
Must form the Valentine;
Yet jingling verse but ill accords
With sentiments like mine.
Beheld, like visions fair and bright,
At once your power was proved,
No sooner seen, than lost to sight,
No sooner known than loved.

The lightning's fire from angry skies
An instant death can give,
And who shall meet those soul-fraught eyes,
And yet unwounded live?
Unlike the wrathful flame of heaven,
Their radiance they impart ;
But not less sure the wound is given
Which rankles in the heart.

The smile that decks that downy cheek
To arch expression joined,
The goodness of the heart bespeak,
And powers of the mind ;
T is seldom in the world we trace
An union half so rare,
In one combining sense and grace,
As talented as fair.

Again to meet, -again to part -
It may - it may not be;
The thought but grieves an aching heart
For what am I to thee!
Then fare thee well, no breast can own
A passion half so pure
As his who loves unseen, unknown,
Nor ever hopes a cure.

Theodore Hook.