"_The Fourteenth Day of February fine:
I choose you for my Valentine._"
Thus ran the first of the sweet old rhymes
On the Lovers'-Day in the old, sweet times:
And so, I follow closely along
To tell my love in the words of the song.
"_Roses are red; violets are blue;
Pinks are sweet, and so are you._"
Roses are red in my sweetheart's cheeks,
Deepening tints whenever one speaks;
Violets are blue in the eyes of one;
In the eyes of the other smileth the sun;
But never were roses half so rare
And never were pinks a tithing as fair
And never have they in their garden-bed
A hundredth part of the fragrance shed,
As my two flowers in their sweet home-frame,
Both flowers by nature and one by name.
So as sure as the bloom grows on the vine
I 'll choose them for my valentine:
My sweet-heart one and my sweet-heart two,
Both little sweet-hearts sweet and true--
To love and to cherish forever mine:
To cherish and love as my valentine.