{
 "id": "edgar-allan-poe/a-valentine",
 "title": "A Valentine",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1846,
  "venue": "Evening Mirror (New York, 21 February 1846), as “To Her Whose Name is Written Below”",
  "note": "Addressed to Frances Sargent Osgood, whose middle name Poe had misspelled in the acrostic; he revised it for Valentine's Eve 1848, and the revision was printed as “A Valentine” in Sartain's (March 1849) and in the Flag of Our Union (3 March 1849). The Evening Mirror printing was repeated from the same type in the Weekly Mirror of 29 February 1846.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.eapoe.org/works/info/pp081.htm"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-allan-poe_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Acrostic",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(Poe)",
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Serenade_(Poe)",
   "https://archive.org/details/worksedgarallan00unkngoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cu31924019520810",
   "https://archive.org/details/jstor-2915307"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": null,
    "was": "A Valentine40",
    "now": "A Valentine",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
    "checked_against": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
    "date": "2026-08-12",
    "field": "title"
   }
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 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 64,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Search narrowly the lines!⁠—they hold a treasure",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Divine⁠—a talisman⁠—an amulet",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The words⁠—the syllables! Do not forget",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And yet there is in this no Gordian knot",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which one might not undo without a sabre,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "If one could merely comprehend the plot.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of poets by poets⁠—as the name is a poet’s, too.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Its letters, although naturally lying",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the knight Pinto⁠—Mendez Ferdinando⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Still form a synonym for Truth⁠—Cease trying!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}