Happy Valentine’s Day!

Enjoy this sweet poem from 1924.

A Belated Valentine
by Ella W. Ricker

Against the somber heavens
   The trees stretch bare and brown;
The uplands gleam before me
   Decked with an icy crown.
No hint of springtime beauty
   Nor summer’s grace I find —

Yet still, beneath the snowdrifts,
   The sap mounts up with power,
And underground is stirring
   The life of many a flower,
Soon shall the sunbeams’ kisses —
   O miracle of old! —
Awake the fairest blossoms
   Of meadow and of wold.

My locks, O friend beloved!
   Are whitened with time’s snows;
My face is seamed with contests
   And saddened with life’s woes.
Yet underneath is surging
   The fiery blood of youth —
There beats in steady rhythm
   A heart of changeless truth.

Let but thy smile illumine
   The winter of my heart,
Love’s fair and radiant blossoms
   To instant bloom would start;
High in the cloudless heavens
   A quenchless sun would shine,
If thou, through coming seasons,
   Wilt be my valentine.