Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, FOUR VALENTINES, by CHARLES KELLOGG FIELD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOUR VALENTINES, by                    
First Line: Tomorrow is the day for valentines
Last Line: The old-maid sister of my major prof.
Subject(s): Holidays; Schools; Universities & Colleges; Valentine's Day; Students


TO-MORROW is the day for valentines;
Then let me leave my thesis for a space,
Lower the lamplight on these weary lines,
And dream a little in the shadowed place.
In my three years at college, I have named
My valentine and kept the season thrice;
The jolly saint himself is to be blamed
If I have never had the same one twice.

In Freshman days, with all about me strange,
And home's sweet halo shining on my way,
My heart had never known the sense of change,
And one dear face was with me day by day;
So, when the time was here, I wrote my verse
And drew the heart and arrow up above,
And, happy in the thought I might do worse,
I sent it off to Mother with my love.

When I had felt the thrill of Sophomore days,
My thoughts were given to a dainty maid
At college with me, and in woodland ways
And quiet music-rooms my court I paid.
But, with my Junior dignity, I chose
My Queen abroad, within the city's glare,
Forgot the violet for the gayer rose,
And lost my heart and pocket-money there.

Saint Valentine, those days were long ago;
Your power is lost upon this penitent,
For, with my Senior gravity, I know
That life means more than your light sentiment.
And yet, this once, your day shall have from me
Some of the old observance, though I scoff;
My thesis waits, -- my Valentine shall be
The old-maid sister of my major prof.





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