{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/the-valentine",
 "title": "The Valentine",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 28,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 8,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 40,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Lady with thine eyes of beauty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rivaling cerulean flowers,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the love-beams seem to linger,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Throughout youth’s bright, sunny hours.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "With thy smile of witching sweetness",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like the magnet’s mystic art,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Charming oft enchanting oft’ner,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Drawing to thee every heart.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But, fair lady, I’ll no longer",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Linger thus o’er nature’s mould,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis thy spirit’s beauty charms me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "More than mines of Peru’s gold.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like an exile who hath wandered",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far from kindred and from home,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pants and longs once more to greet them,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Never more on earth to roam;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Like the tempest-tossed, the weary,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who of earth ne’er had their part,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Fain would land their stricken spirits",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where heart answers unto heart;⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So this bosom when overflowing",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With some latent, deadly grief,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Loves to revel in the music",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of thy voice to find relief.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And when joys do hover ’round me,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Weaving chaplets rich and bright,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "I’d away from pleasures turn me",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To my beautiful “Starlight.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Lady! could I seal thy future,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All of bliss and love ’twould be;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And when time with us is ended,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spend eternity with thee.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}