Sample love notes, then and now

One version of St. Valentine refers to the designation of two martyr priests, one who died in Rome and the other a bishop of Terni whose feast used to be celebrated on February 14 as Valentine's Day.

The practice of exchanging love notes or valentines among lovers is said to be a conventional medieval practice in England and France, falling "at the start of the second fortnight (second week) of the second month (February) that the birds began to mate".

Since time immemorial, "valentine" has become synonymous to one's sweetheart or lover who is endearingly complimented or gifted with greeting cards, flowers, and love notes or messages, during Valentine's Day on February 14.

And so today, going along the special occasion, and not only confined to sweethearts but also to others including even bitter enemies, all are theoretically expected to exchange conciliatory hands and hearts.

Among romantic writers, especially the poets of yore, there are those whose love notes - not necessarily only in celebration of Valentine's Day - have become famously oft-quoted then and now.

Taking a special cue from The FREEMAN's Valentine promo "My Most Romantic Letter" winners, one is inspired to compare some love notes of yesteryears and the present.

For instance, in Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha", there's this stanza, as one endeavors to recall, like: "As unto the bow the chord is/So unto the man is woman/Though he bends her, yet she draws him/Though she obeys him, yet she follows/Useless each without the other".

The TF third prize winner, Rush O. Kimhoko, warmly enthuses in part: "It seems that there is always something to remind me of you/A song, a place, a good news I want to share with you/A smile that reminds me of yours/...You're always in my warmest thoughts and prayers".

In "The Indian Serenade", English poet P.B. Shelley pens this serenade: "I arise from dreams of thee/In the first sweet sleep of night/When the winds are breathing low/And the stars are shining bright". Another English poet, Alfred Noyes in "The Highwayman", versifies: "I think of you by moonlight/I'll come to you by moonlight/Though hell should bar my way".

Wilmer Sedentario as TF's second prize Valentine promo winner also heartily reminisces in part: "I never knew about love then/For me, it was only a word in the dictionary/A theme of a song, an idea for a movie/...Then I stepped on your foot while wading thru the Sinulog crowd/...Now I know all about love/It's all about you".

To most literary cognoscenti of passionate love notes, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese" dedicated to her beloved husband Robert Browning, another English poet, are seldom excelled in poignancy and warmth, like these lines "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways/I love thee to the depth and breadth and height/My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight/For the ends of being and ideal grace".

And then, she ends the particular sonnet with this quatrain: "I love thee with a love I seemed to lose/With my lost saints - I love thee with the breath/Smiles, tears of all my life; and, if God choose/I shall but love thee better after death".

But not to be outdone in sincere love worship, TF's most romantic love letter grand prize winner, Raymond Patindol, rhapsodizes, also in part: "We found out our hearts listen to each other and we are almost always in tune/We have very precious moments together forever etched in my mind and stamped within my heart/...Now, I can look back at yesterday without regret and tomorrow without fear".

Lest you dear readers get lost in poesy's dreamland, or get to a point of accusing one of being corny, here's instead a happy Valentine wish to all today!