The soft wind from the south land sped, <br />He set his strength to blow, <br />From forests where Adonis bled, <br />And lily flowers a-row: <br />He crossed the straits like streams that flow, <br />The ocean dark as wine, <br />To my true love to whisper low, <br />To be your Valentine. <br /> <br />The Spring half-raised her drowsy head, <br />Besprent with drifted snow, <br />'I'll send an April day,' she said, <br />'To lands of wintry woe.' <br />He came,--the winter's overthrow <br />With showers that sing and shine, <br />Pied daisies round your path to strow, <br />To be your Valentine. <br /> <br />Where sands of Egypt, swart and red, <br />'Neath suns Egyptian glow, <br />In places of the princely dead, <br />By the Nile's overflow, <br />The swallow preened her wings to go, <br />And for the North did pine, <br />And fain would brave the frost her foe, <br />To be your Valentine. <br /> <br />ENVOY. <br /> <br />Spring, Swallow, South Wind, even so, <br />Their various voice combine; <br />But that they crave on ME bestow, <br />To be your Valentine.<br /><br />Andrew Lang<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/valentine-in-form-of-ballade/
