Lines Suggested By The Fourteenth Of February.

DARKNESS succeeds to twilight: Through lattice and through skylight The stars no doubt, if one looked out, Might be observed to shine: And sitting by the embers I elevate my members On a stray chair, and then and there Commence a Valentine. Yea! by St. Valentinus, Emma shall not be minus What all young ladies, whate’er their grade is, Expect to-day no doubt: Emma the fair, the stately— Whom I beheld so lately, Smiling beneath the snow-white wreath Which told that she was “out.” Wherefore fly to her, swallow, And mention that I’d “follow,” And “pipe and trill,” et cetera, till I died, had I but wings: Say the North’s “true and tender,” The South an old offender; And hint in fact, with your well-known tact, All kinds of pretty things. Say I grow hourly thinner, Simply abhor my dinner— Tho’ I do try and absorb some viand Each day, for form’s sake merely: And ask her, when all’s ended, And I am found extended, With vest blood-spotted and cut carotid, To think on Her’s sincerely.