Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. James H. Whitty), “A Valentine,” The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911, p. 73


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[page 73, unnumbered:]

A VALENTINE

To —— —— ——

[[v]]

FOR her these lines are penned, whose luminous eyes,

Brightly expressive as the twins of Lœda,

Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies

[[v]]

Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.

[[v]]

Search narrowly this rhyme, which holds a treasure

Divine — a talisman — an amulet

That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure —

[[v]]

The words — the letters themselves. Do not forget

The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!

And yet there is in this no Gordian knot

Which one might not undo without a sabre,

[[v]]

If one could merely understand the plot.

[[v]]

Enwritten upon this page whereon are peering

[[v]]

Such eager eyes, there lies, I say, perdu

[[v]]

A well-known name, oft uttered in the hearing

Of poets, by poets — as the name is a poet's, too.

Its letters, although naturally lying

Like the knight Pinto — Mendez Ferdinando —

Still form a synonym for Truth. — Cease trying!

You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - JHW11, 1911] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - A Valentine (ed. J. H. Whitty, 1911)