Darkness succeeds to twilight: <br />Through lattice and through skylight <br />The stars no doubt, if one looked out, <br />Might be observed to shine: <br />And sitting by the embers <br />I elevate my members <br />On a stray chair, and then and there <br />Commence a Valentine. <br /> <br />Yea! by St. Valentinus, <br />Emma shall not be minus <br />What all young ladies, whate'er their grade is, <br />Expect to-day no doubt: <br />Emma the fair, the stately - <br />Whom I beheld so lately, <br />Smiling beneath the snow-white wreath <br />Which told that she was 'out.' <br /> <br />Wherefore fly to her, swallow, <br />And mention that I'd 'follow,' <br />And 'pipe and trill,' et cetera, till <br />I died, had I but wings: <br />Say the North's 'true and tender,' <br />The South an old offender; <br />And hint in fact, with your well-known tact, <br />All kinds of pretty things. <br /> <br />Say I grow hourly thinner, <br />Simply abhor my dinner - <br />Tho' I do try and absorb some viand <br />Each day, for form's sake merely: <br />And ask her, when all's ended, <br />And I am found extended, <br />With vest blood-spotted and cut carotid, <br />To think on Her's sincerely.<br /><br />Charles Stuart Calverley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lines-suggested-by-the-fourteenth-of-february-ii/
