Accuracy Project

Be sure and visit these other collections of short poems:
Christmas poems by Christina Rossetti
Short poems by African-American poets
Christmas Poems by various poets and authors
Easter Poems and Prose
Short poems and sonnets by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Short poems by Robert Browning
Short poems by William Cullen Bryant
Short poems by Emily Dickinson
Short poems by Eugene Field
Short poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Short poems and sonnets by John Keats
Short poems by Rudyard Kipling
Short poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Short poems by James Russell Lowell
Short poems and sonnets by John Milton
Short poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Short poems by James Whitcomb Riley
Short poems and sonnets by Christina Rossetti
Poems and ballads by Sir Walter Scott
Short poems by Walt Whitman
Short poems by John Greenleaf Whittier
Short poems by William Wordsworth

1878

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Blessed Dear & heart's Delight,
Companion, Friend, & Mother mine
Round whom my fears & love entwine,--
With whom I hope to stand & sing
Where Angels form the outer ring
Round singing Saints who, clad in white,
Know no more of day or night
Or death or any changeful thing,
Or anything that is not love,
Human love & love Divine,--
Bid me to that tryst above,
Bless your Valentine.

1879

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Mother mine
Whom every year
Doth endear,
Before sweet Spring
(That sweetest thing
Brimfull of bliss)
Sets all the throng
Of birds a-wooing
Billing & cooing,--
Your Valentine
Sings you a song,
Gives you a kiss.

1880

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

More shower than shine
Brings sweet St. Valentine;
Warm shine, warm shower,
Bring up sweet flower on flower:
Thro' shower & shine
Loves you your Valentine,
Thro' shine, thro' shower,
Thro' summer's flush, thro' Autumn's fading hour.

1884

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Another year of joy & grief,
Another year of hope & fear:
O Mother, is life long or brief?
We hasten while we linger here.

But since we linger, love me still
And bless me still, O Mother mine,
While hand in hand we scale life's hill,
You Guide, & I your Valentine.

1885 ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

All the Robin Redbreasts
Have lived the winter thro',
Jenny Wrens have pecked their fill
And found a work to do,
Families of Sparrows
Have weathered wind & storm
With Rabbit on the stony hill
And Hare upon her form.

You & I, my Mother,
Have lived the winter thro',
And still we play our daily parts
And still find work to do:
And still the cornfields flourish,
The olive & the vine,
And still you reign my Queen of Hearts
And I'm your Valentine.

1886 ST. VALENTINE'S DAY

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Winter's latest snowflake is the snowdrop flower,
Yellow crocus kindles the first flame of the Spring,
At that time appointed, at that day and hour
When life reawakens and hope in everything.
Such a tender snowflake in the wintry weather,
Such a feeble flamelet for chilled St. Valentine,--
But blest be any weather which finds us still together,
My pleasure and my treasure O blessed Mother mine.

FAIRER THAN YOUNGER BEAUTIES, MORE BELOVED

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Fairer than younger beauties, more beloved
Than many a wife,--
By stress of Time's vicissitudes unmoved
From settled calm of life,--

Endearing rectitude to those who watch
The verdict of your face,
Raising & making gracious those who catch
A semblance of your grace:--

With kindly lips of welcome, & with pleased
Propitious eyes benign,
Accept a kiss of homage from your least
Last Valentine.

FEBRUARY 14, 1883

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

A world of change and loss, a world of death,
Of heart and eyes that fail, of labouring breath,
Of pains to bear and painful deeds to do:--
Nevertheless a world of life to come
And love; where you're at home, while in our home
Your Valentine rejoices having you.

ST. VALENTINE'S DAY 1881

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Too cold almost for hope of Spring
Or firstfruits from the realm of flowers,
Your dauntless Valentine, I bring
One sprig of love, and sing
"Love has no Winter hours."--

If even in this world love is love
(This wintry world which felt the Fall),
What must it be in Heaven above
Where love to great and small
Is all in all?

A VALENTINE, 1877

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

Own Mother dear,
We all rejoicing here
Wait for each other,
Daughter for Mother,
Sister for Brother,
Till each dear face appear
Transfigured by Love's flame
Yet still the same,--
The same yet new,--
My face to you,
Your face to me,
Made lovelier by Love's flame
But still the same;
Most dear to see
In halo of Love's flame,
Because the same.

A VALENTINE, 1882

BY CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

My blessed Mother dozing in her chair
On Christmas Day seemed an embodied Love,
A comfortable Love with soft brown hair
Softened and silvered to a tint of dove,
A better sort of Venus with an air
Angelical from thoughts that dwell above,
A wiser Pallas in whose body fair
Enshrined a blessed soul looks out thereof.
Winter brought Holly then; now Spring has brought
Paler and frailer Snowdrops shivering;
And I have brought a simple humble thought
--I her devoted duteous Valentine--,
A lifelong thought which thrills this song I sing,
A lifelong love to this dear Saint of mine.