A Valentine
E.
Matheson
Matheson, E.
Metadata research and editing
DVPP Project Team
Fralick
Kaitlyn
University of Victoria Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project
Victoria, BC, Canada
In the public domain
Chambers’s Journal ledger indicates that Matheson was paid 10s 6d for the poem (NLS Dep 341/370). (AC)
Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal
5
7
317
64
By the moss-grown wicket gate,
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A Valentin
e.
By the moss-grown wicket gate,
Which she swings with timid hands,
And but half-inclined to wait,
A pretty maiden stands ;
For who first shall cross her way,
When the early sunbeams shine
On this February day,
She may choose as Valentine.
So she lingers in the mist,
While swift blushes come and go,
Till the sun’s warm lips have kissed
Into living gold the snow.
Is it one of Cupid’s laws,
Or some sweet decree of Fate,
That a manly step should pause
Every morning by that gate ?
No ! his duties in the town
Call the lad who loves her well,
Through the pastures bare and brown,
From his homestead on the fell.
You may shake wise heads and smile—
Yet the narrow path leads straight
From the fields beyond the stile
To the moss-grown wicket gate.
Hush ! She hears his rapid strides ;
But the holly boughs droop nigh,
And to-day she shyly hides
Till the feet pause and—pass by.
Ah! the thrush that nests above
Sees how soft blue eyes can shine,
When a maiden’s own true love
Is her chosen Valentine.
Well, a lover need not know
That a pretty maid would wait
In the February snow
By a moss-grown wicket gate.
And the secret of the bush
Where the scarlet berries shine
Will be safe between the thrush
And good St Valentine.
E. Matheson
.