LINES SUGGESTED BY THE FOURTEENTH OF FEBRUARY.

Ere the morn the East has crimsoned,

When the stars are twinkling there,

( As they did in Watts's Hymns, and

Made him wonder what they were:)

When the forest-nymphs are beading

Fern and flower with silvery dew -

My infallible proceeding

Is to wake, and think of you.

When the hunter's ringing bugle

Sounds farewell to field and copse,

And I sit before my frugal

Meal of gravy-soup and chops:

When ( as Gray remarks ) “the moping

Owl doth to the moon complain,”

And the hour suggests eloping -

Fly my thoughts to you again.

May my dreams be granted never?

Must I aye endure affliction

Rarely realised, if ever,

In our wildest works of fiction?

Madly Romeo loved his Juliet;

Copperfield began to pine

When he had n't been to school yet -

But their loves were cold to mine.

Give me hope, the least, the dimmest,

Ere I drain the poisoned cup:

Tell me I may tell the chymist

Not to make that arsenic up!

Else, this heart shall soon cease throbbing;

And when, musing o'er my bones,

Travellers ask, “Who killed Cock Robin?”

They'll be told, “Miss Sarah J-s.”