[Page 23]
To a FRIEND;
ON VALENTINE's DAY.
1 Tho' blooming shepherds hail this day
2 With love, the subject of each lay,
3 Yet friendship tunes my artless song,
4 To thee the grateful themes belong.
5 Strephon, I never will repine,
6 Tho' destin'd not thy Valentine;
7 O'er friendship's nobler heights we'll rove,
8 Nor heed the soft'ning voice of love.
[Page 24]9 Strangers to Passion's tyrant reign,
10 Careless, we'll range the happier plain
11 Where all those calmer joys we'll prove,
12 Which wait sublime platonic love.
13 Yet I'll allow a future day,
14 When friendship must at last give way;
15 When thou, forgetful, shalt resign
16 The maid who wrote this Valentine.
17 Think not, my friend, I dream of love,
18 That with some happier maid thou'lt prove;
19 Friendship alone is my design
20 In this officious Valentine.
[Page 25]21 Yet, when that victor God shall reign,
22 And conquer'd Friendship quits the plain,
23 This gentle whisperer captive take,
24 'T will all thy former kindness wake.
25 But if its pleadings you deny,
26 And fain wou'd have remembrance die,
27 Then to devouring flames consign
28 My too ill-fated Valentine.
About this text
Author: Ann Yearsley (née Cromartie)
Themes:
friendship
Genres:
address; occasional poem
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Yearsley, Ann, 1753-1806. Poems, on several occasions. By Ann Yearsley, a milkwoman of Bristol [poems only]. The second edition. London: printed for T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1785, pp. 23-25. xxxii, 127p. (ESTC N22108)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized.
The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been
recorded in textual notes. This
ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Ann Yearsley (née Cromartie)
- ADDRESS TO FRIENDSHIP. ()
- Another VALENTINE. TO ANOTHER PERSON. ()
- CLIFTON HILL. Written in January 1785. ()
- A FRAGMENT. ()
- NIGHT. To STELLA. ()
- On Mrs. MONTAGU. ()
- ON THE Sudden Death of a FRIEND. ()
- A POEM ON THE INHUMANITY OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. ()
- SOLILOQUY. ()
- THOUGHTS ON THE AUTHOR's OWN DEATH. WRITTEN WHEN VERY YOUNG. ()
- TO HER GRACE The Duchess Dowager of PORTLAND. ()
- To Mr. R—, ON HIS Benevolent Scheme for rescuing Poor Children from Vice and Misery, BY PROMOTING SUNDAY SCHOOLS. ()
- To Mrs. M—S. ()
- To Mrs. V—N. ()
- TO STELLA; ON A Visit to Mrs. MONTAGU. ()
- TO THE Honourable H—E W—E, ON READING The CASTLE of OTRANTO. December, 1784. ()
- To the Same; ON HER ACCUSING THE AUTHOR OF FLATTERY, AND OF Ascribing to the Creature that Praise which is due only to the Creator. ()