“Valentine”

By Mary Hale Woolsey

Here among my treasures few
Hidden through the years,
Sweet with memories of you –
And blotted o’er by tears:

Yellowed now, its paper lace,
By faded roses held in place;
Hearts and darts and flowers entwine
These words: “To My Valentine.”

How its message, tender, dear,
Set my heart aglow
When at first I read it here
In the long-ago:

“Promise that you’ll love me true,
For you know I’m fond of you.”
(Thus it speaks, in words like wine)
“Say you’ll be my Valentine!”

Fickle you! – who soon forgot
All these honeyed phrases!
Turned, without a care or thought,
To new and fairer faces!

You have loved the world across;
I alone have felt love’s loss.
Was it ever really mine,
As you said, my Valentine?

But the love I gave to you
Still is in my heart;
Years pass by, but each day’s new,
And Hope still claims a part.

Vain, I know – and bid my dreams
Cease – (this also vain, it seems!)
Consolation, though, is mine:
I have been your Valentine!

(1931)