Here’s a special Valentine’s Day gift to you. A new Romance blog-and-more from Macmillan Publishing. Heroes and Heartbreakers.com, featuring occasional blog postings by me and several other familiar names, plus short stories and more. This is what Megan has been working on for months. More from her Friday, I’m sure, but take a peek today!
Valentine’s Day as we celebrate today started in Victorian times, but Regency young men did send love-notes and had assistance from The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, published in 1797.
So, in celebration of Valentine’s Day, here are some vintage Valentines and Regency (and Georgian) verses;
O my luve is like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my luve is like the melodie,
That’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry
Robert Burns (1794)
Bright Star
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art —
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors —
No — yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft swell and fall,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever — or else swoon to death.
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place
Lord Byron (1814)
What is your favorite love poem?
Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Diane, put me down for “Bright Star”. And I haven’t even seen the film yet.
Hope everyone has a great evening. I’m off to prepare our all pink meal. 🙂
My favorite “love” poem isn’t necessarily the love you have for another person, but more about the love you should have for life:
Things
There comes a time in every life when we realize what is important and what is trivial
We learn that some truths are lies and no one can go it all alone
It seems to be that when you have no idea where you are going, you always end up in the exact right spot
It helps to turn to others for a helping hand
When you realize that these are the things you need: life, love, happiness, a sense of being, knowing who you are, and being comfortable with yourself
That’s life at its fullest
There are so many ways one can accomplish these things and yet they cannot be written down –
For if they are then the secret to happiness will be forever lost
Think back to a favorite moment from your childhood…
Do you see yourself standing there with a laughing smile on your face and large inquiring innocent eyes staring back at you?
What happened to that smile? That laugh? That innocence?
Regardless of what you may think, they’re still with you –
You only need to release them
And yet that feeling of insecurity that only grows larger with age and so called wisdom keep pushing you farther into confusion
There is a time in your life when you must do what you know to be the best choice for you…
There is a time in your life when you will make the wrong decision, but things will still work out for the best…
There is a time in your life when you will get hurt badly and yet you’ll grow from the experience and the pain…
There is a time in your life when nothing seems to go your way, but you’ll be happy anyway…
There is a time in your life when happiness will never leave your side and you’ll know the joy of being alive…
There is a time in your life when death will take over, but you will accept it with the grace and beauty of a woman…
There is a time in your life when you will just want to be held and those strong arms that have always been there for you, will be there once again…
There is a time in your life when you’ll sound just like your mother and you’ll laugh as you finally realize how she felt…
There is a time in your life when you’ll lose your way, but God will be there to help you…
There is a time in your life when confusion will take over, but you’ll gain control before anything bad happens…
There is a time in your life when you must accept defeat and you will do so like and with the sophistication of an adult not the insecurity of a child…
There is a time in your life when you will feel like you’re losing yourself, but your friends will be there to help you…
There is a time in your life for everything
All we can do is hold our heads high and wait for what destiny has in store for us –
We should not wish to become adults or try desperately to regain our childhood…
We must accept the life we were given and simply be thankful for it;
We must respect not only ourselves, but others and learn from mistakes we make and remember to laugh in the face of depression…
We are all beautiful creatures, but we must remember our own fragility…
Friends are the key to making it through life –
Treasure every moment and take the words “what if I had…” out of your vocabulary
For they are not important
They only hold you back from experiencing today –
Live then with the knowledge that you make your own happiness for our lives are our own; we only need to shape them as we want to live and decorate ourselves in ways we want to be remembered –
For in this play we sometimes call life there are no bit or small parts and everyone gets their name mentioned at one time or another.
Does that first valentine signify that he loves his dog, or that the Dog loves her? I’m confused…
Susan in AZ
I am quite fond of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Sonnet 43.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
And I also love almost anything by Byron, particularly She Walks in Beauty Like the Night.
Elena, Bright Star is beautiful….but sad.
Rachel, I love the sentiments in that poem.
Susan in AZ, it was the only valentine I could find with roses!!! (and isn’t that doggie cute)
Louisa, that is another of the world’s greatest love poems!
I always love Shakespeare’s Sonnets, especially this time of year 🙂
Thank you for putting these complete poems in your blog for us. I have heard bits and pieces before, but never the whole poem.
I love the dog valentine!
She Walks in Beauty is one of my favorites. And:
Sonnet 29
When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art, and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
–William Shakespeare
Judy and Amanda, how could I have forgotten Shakespeare?
Librarypat, the complete poems can be found by googling their titles. My versions are slightly abridged.