University of Virginia Library

VALENTINES—FOR MY TWO.

FOR FAY.

Fairy! Fairy! fair and fine,
Will you be my Valentine?
Little sprite of flame and dew,
Fairy fingers fashioned you!
Spun their flax for shining hair,
Sun-lit snow for forehead fair;
Painted soft each crimson lip
With the rose-dew that they sip;
Set the pinkness of a shell
On those rounded cheeks to dwell;
Drew from some pure tiny lake
Shadows water-spiders make,
Crystal clear and diamond bright,
For those eyes of dauntless light,
Tempered with a fairy tear
Lest their brightness shine too clear;
And for that sweet sudden smiling,
Every hardest heart beguiling,
Caught the splendor of the sun,
When his day-long race is run,
And the space 'twixt cloud and hills
All his rapid glory fills.
Ah! my love, my sweet, my baby,
Did the fairies give thee, maybe,
All these gifts, and add the smart
Of a loving human heart,
Lest so many gracious things
Should too early give thee wings?
Fairy! Fairy! fair and fine,
Be my darling Valentine!

FOR BIRDIE.

I want a Valentine
Who will be mine?
She must have lips as red, as red,
As strawberries in the garden bed;
She must have eyes as blue and sweet
As speedwell blossoms at her feet;
Two cheeks as soft as summer roses;
The tiniest, funniest of noses;
A chin as round as apples are,
And dimples twinkling like a star;
A forehead smooth and very fair,
With shining, shadowy, tumbled hair;
A look both saucy and coquettish,
Sometimes too sweet, sometimes too pettish;
A laugh like any bobolink,
Too gay to scold, too glad to think:
A little, willful, mortal thing,
That to its sweetheart's arms will spring,
And kiss and tease in equal measure—
Birdie! can this be you, my treasure?