A Valentine's Gift: Three Love Poems

Ah, St. Valentine's Day. That one day of all the year when we celebrate LOVE. A box of candy wouldn't go amiss, or a pair of sparkling diamond earrings, a diaphanous silk scarf swirling with soft colors...a dozen red roses is also high on the list of classic, and well-known symbols of Valentine's Day gifts.

If you are looking for that special something, that unique gift that completely speaks your love, what better present on this most special of occasions, Saint Valentine's Day, than to express your adoration in verse? Imagine the pleasure when they open that lovely card, expecting no doubt, to receive some nice but commercially produced sentiment pulled from the racks upon racks of pre-written missives in that specialty store at the mall, and find, instead, a personally penned protestation of your love.

A good place to start for inspiration is the simple and familiar rhyme well-known to almost every child - you remember the one:

Roses are red; violets are blue;

Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

Bobby Vinton, teen heart-throb in the 60s, recorded his own lovely sentimental version of that wee ditty, that actually incorporated the poem into his chorus.

Roses are always a popular subject. Likening one's lady fair to a "red, red rose" was a popular pass-time long before Robbie Burns likened his love to one.

Medieval balladeers have warbled odes full of references to rose-petal complexions, to rosy pink blushes, and to the soft as a rose petal caress of dainty fingers.

Whether you love has any parts that you can or would liken to a rose is not really the issue though. The real issue is to express to your inamorata how very much you love her/him. Sometimes, like the single, long-stemmed, perfect rose of Alice Platt's ode, the symbol of your love should be as simple and uncomplicated as the message it carries.

One single rose between us fell,

Its velvet cheek on stony path, from fingers dropped;

So, love, am I cast off from you,

So far from golden sun - the warmth of love's regard;

And yet your hand can raise love up again;

Restore regard and faith from whence it flew;

So I to you shall fly with joy renewed,

Redeemèd so, and so with love, remain;

Those softest petals pressed in time,

A lover's missive so adorned - remembrance dear -

The faint, sweet scent of happiness,

Still clings to ribboned card and holds faint trace of you...

Shakespeare wrote some amazing sonnets on the subject of love.

Much has been written about his verses - their origins, their meanings, why they were written - but they are still some of the most lovely words ever penned on the subject of love.

His Sonnet 75 speaks with the very breath of love:

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;

Now that's how you tell someone you love them - by telling them they are as necessary to you as food and water!

His 97th Sonnet, which fairly weeps with yearning begins with the words,

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee,

Will penned some hundred and fifty-four sonnets in all, comprising a fairly respectable body of poetry - and many of them on the subject of love.

A track record like that makes the idea of creating one small verse for a St. Valentine's Day card seem much more attainable, doesn't it?

Ask not how love has fared since last you came -

Love faded ere your breath had fled away;

Ask not how grace has labored to abide -

Nor grace, nor light, nor warmth has here remained;

Yet with you, light and life creeps back;

Returning tide 'cross stony shores

Renews long sere and thirst-wracked love

Like sweet refreshing dew;

Yet ask love once again how fares it now,

With fires rekindled? Love's bed made anew;

Soft, twinèd limbs and lovers' secret sighs

Now speak of love restored - your love to mine...

Poets have labored long to create the perfect balance of imagery and clarity - to create the perfect fusion between words and emotions.

Odes, sonnets, Haiku, free verse - whatever the style or discipline the authors choose, they all seek that perfect moment of pellucid clarity in which the beholder feels the meaning of the work - feels it bone-deep, as surely as they feel the blood in their veins and the very breath in their lungs.

Songwriters take that journey one step further by adding music to the mix. It is quite likely that more songs about love have been written than on any other single topic.

Where it seems sometimes that poets write about their feelings in a roundabout manner that can be a bit daunting, songwriters make sure you can understand exactly what they are on about.

How much more clearly could the sentiments in this lovely ballad be expressed?

Wise men say, "Only fools rush in,"

But I can't help falling in love with you.

Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?

For I can't help falling in love with you;

Like a river flows, surely to the sea,

Darling so it goes; some things are meant to be...

Take my hand, - take my whole life, too,

For I can't help falling in love with you.

So, there you have it! I have every confidence in you. With a little bit of thought, you, too can pen a lovely sonnet to your love. You, too, can delight your special someone on Valentine's Day with a moving and meaningful ode to the love you bear them.

It doesn't have to be long, or fancy, or use big words. All you have to do is speak from your heart.

If You Be Love...

If you be love, take then my heart;

In joy, be thou my sun;

Hold fast my hand, and never part;

So share we life as one;

Take thou my days, and in our nights

Our love shall blessèd be;

Where e'er we two with peace abide,

Lives love, eternally.

© Elle Fredine, 2010, all rights reserved

"One Single Rose", "Ask Not", "If You Be Love", © Elle Fredine, 2010

Fellow hubber Watch Tower left such great instructions in a comment that I decided to share them with you in the hub:

To all you Men and woman out there in the big wide world.

that believe or think, you can not write a love poem here is a couple of tips, which I hope will be of help.

Think of nouns and verbs that describe your feelings for your Valentine. is her skin as fair as the moon, is your love as radiant as the sun ? Do they make you feel, when you are together nothing else in the world matters? Or you are so happy all life's problems seem to melt away? when you think of them what words, nouns and verbs do you associate with them? and last tip, do not be over critical about your poem.write from your heart and Mind and it will be a winner every time.

If you are looking for a valentine or romantic card I design unique romantic cards - some are only ever designed for the current year and are removed from the market after Valentine's day, See them at http://imp-creations.com

Here is another place to find some lovely Love Poems, courtesy of amor.