Works

This is a valentine for you.
Mother made it. She's real smart,
I told her that I loved you true
And you were my sweetheart.

And then she smiled, and then she winked,
And then she said to father,...

[TO O. R.]


Out from the Land of the Future, into the Land of the Past
A comrade sails to the East, the sport of the wave and the blast....

I send,
O sweetest friend,
A kiss;
Such as fair ladies gave
Of old, when knights were brave,
And smiles were won
Through foes undone.
And this will be
For you to give again to me;...

'Twas a tender little honeysuckle vine
That smiled and danced in the warm sunshine,
And spied a maid as fair as all maids be,
Who said, "Little honeysuckle, come up to me."...

There once was a man who asked for pie,
In a piping voice up high, up high;
And when he asked for a salmon roe,
He spoke in a voice down low, down low;
But when he said he had no choice,...

Lyke some choise booke thou arte toe mee,
Bound all so daintilie;
And 'neath the covers faire
Are contents true and rare.
Ne wolde I looke
Ne reade inne any other booke...

If I were but a syndicate,
And love were merchandise,
I'd buy it at the market rate,
And hold it for a rise.

And should the price of all this love
Bound upward like a ball,...

Were I a murm'ring ocean shell
Pressed close against your ear,
My constant whisperings would tell
A story sweet to hear.
I'd make the message from the sea
Love's tidings on the shore,...

Take all the love that e'er was told
Since first the world began,
Increase it twenty thousand-fold
(If mathematics can),
Add all the love the world shall see
Till Gabriel's final call,...

(After Henri Murger)

Though I love many maidens fair
As fondly as a heart may dare,
Yet still are you the only one
True goddess of my pantheon.

And though my life is like a song,...

I send you two kisses
Wrapped up in a rhyme;
From Love's warm abysses
I send you two kisses;
If one of them misses
Please wait till next time,
And I'll send you three kisses...