A VALENTINE

by: William Allingham (1824-1889)

ady fair, lady fair,

Seated with the scornful,

Though your beauty be so rare,

I were but a born fool

Still to seek my pleasure there.




To love your features and your hue,

All your glowing beauty,

All in short that's good of you,

Was and is my duty,

As to love all beauty too.




But now a fairer face I've got,

A Picture's -- and, believe me,

I never looked to you for aught

That it cannot give me;

What you've more, improves you not.




Your queenly lips can speak, and prove

The means of your uncrowning;

Your brow can change, your eyes can move,

Which gives you power of frowning;

Hers have Heaven's one thought, of Love.




So now I give goodbye, ma belle,

And lose no great good by it;

You're fair, yet I can smile farewell,

As you must shortly sigh it,

To your bright, light outer shell!




"A Valentine" is reprinted from Poems. William Allingham. London: Chapman and Hall, 1850.

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