A VALENTINE.
Reading edition
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BY R. H. BACON.
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Alas! sweet ——, how hard a task is mine
Thy behest to fulfill. The poet’s heart
Freezes with winter; and his lyric art,
Torpid and dull, no coronals can twine,
Even in honor of Saint Valentine!
Yet must the saint be honored; so I lay
A frozen dove upon his frozen shrine,
And ice-twigs pile for sacrificial pyre,
While driving snows obscure the short-lived day,
Praying thine eyes for soft consuming fire!
The thawing ice fit emblem then will be
Of tears, that sickness laid its hand on thee:
The flashing light, that shows the altar burning,
Shall be my gladness at thy health’s returning;
Health, Joy and Spring in one sweet band returning!
Cambridge, St. Valentine’s Day, 1847.