Valentine Poems
Roundel
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Now welcome Summer with thy sunne soft,
That hast this winter's weathers overshake,
And driven away the longe nighties black.
Saint Valentine, that art full high aloft,
Thus singen smalle fowles for thy sake:
Now welcome Summer with tye sunne soft,
That hast this winter's weathers overshake.
Well have they cause for to gladden oft,
......
O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art
by William Wordsworth
O Nightingale! thou surely art
A creature of a "fiery heart":--
These notes of thine--they pierce and pierce;
Tumultuous harmony and fierce!
Thou sing'st as if the God of wine
Had helped thee to a Valentine;
A song in mockery and despite
Of shades, and dews, and silent night;
And steady bliss, and all the loves
Now sleeping in these peaceful groves.
......
Witch-Wife
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
She is neither pink nor pale,
And she never will be all mine;
She learned her hands in a fairy-tale,
And her mouth on a valentine.
She has more hair than she needs;
In the sun 'tis a woe to me!
And her voice is a string of coloured beads,
Or steps leading into the sea.
......
A Valentine
by Lewis Carroll
Sent to a friend who had complained that I was glad enough to see
him when he came, but didn't seem to miss him if he stayed away.
And cannot pleasures, while they last,
Be actual unless, when past,
They leave us shuddering and aghast,
With anguish smarting?
And cannot friends be firm and fast,
And yet bear parting?
......
Diaspora Women
by Anil Soneji
Like curbside urchins, litter strewn
Beneath bridges and Tramways of Wanchai
Tribal encampments of Filipino women
Potlatch "Valentine Romances", Religious
blather and soft secrets,
Played out each homeless Hong Kong Sunday. Across from the Ritz Carlton
They share their Eucharist
In plastic boxes with plastic spoons.
Six days of scullery work and breaking bread
Reward them a seventh of sad freedom. Jean-fondled hips caressing fingers
......
Bloody Valentine
by Ghairo Daniels
(Poet’s Note : This little poem was placed 5th in an international competition on Valentines)
MY BLOODY VALENTINE
This villain on a coin
this shadow on a sea
wind join
this seventh dimensional
phantom
......
Unrequited Love Gone Too Far
by Jeffrey Pipes Guice
Valentine, Valentine,
Why do you refuse to be mine...
I send you expensive gifts
of red roses and fine wine...
I invite you to fancy restaurants,
And theatre and to the play...
You treat me with distain
And you tell me to ‘stay away’
......
The Lighted Window
by Sara Teasdale
He said:
"In the winter dusk
When the pavements were gleaming with rain,
I walked thru a dingy street
Hurried, harassed,
Thinking of all my problems that never are solved.
Suddenly out of the mist, a flaring gas-jet
Shone from a huddled shop.
I saw thru the bleary window
......
A Valentine's Song
by Robert Louis Stevenson
MOTLEY I count the only wear
That suits, in this mixed world, the truly wise,
Who boldly smile upon despair
And shake their bells in Grandam Grundy's eyes.
Singers should sing with such a goodly cheer
That the bare listening should make strong like wine,
At this unruly time of year,
The Feast of Valentine.
We do not now parade our "oughts"
......
Hugh Selwyn Mauberly (Part I)
by Ezra Pound
"Vocat aestus in umbram"
Nemesianus Es. IV.
E. P. Ode pour l'élection de son sépulchre
For three years, out of key with his time,
He strove to resuscitate the dead art
Of poetry; to maintain "the sublime"
In the old sense. Wrong from the start --
......
