A Valentine To My Wife

Eugene Field 1850 (St. Louis) – 1895 (Chicago)



Accept, dear girl, this little token,
And if between the lines you seek,
You'll find the love I've often spoken—
The love my dying lips shall speak.

Our little ones are making merry
O'er am'rous ditties rhymed in jest,
But in these words (though awkward—very)
The genuine article's expressed.

You are as fair and sweet and tender,
Dear brown-eyed little sweetheart mine,
As when, a callow youth and slender,
I asked to be your Valentine.

What though these years of ours be fleeting?
What though the years of youth be flown?
I'll mock old Tempus with repeating,
'I love my love and her alone!'

And when I fall before his reaping,
And when my stuttering speech is dumb,
Think not my love is dead or sleeping,
But that it waits for you to come.

So take, dear love, this little token,
And if there speaks in any line
The sentiment I'd fain have spoken,
Say, will you kiss your Valentine?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

50 sec read
145

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH GIGI AFAF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 892
Words 163
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Eugene Field

Eugene Field, Sr. was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. more…

All Eugene Field poems | Eugene Field Books

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