A valentine to his wife that night.

He thought of metre, he thought of rhyme.

'Twas a race between weary brains and time.

He tried to write as he used to when

His heart was as young as his untried pen.

He started a sonnet, but gave it up.

A rondeau failed for a rhyme to "cup."

And the old clock ticked his time away,

For the editor's mind would go astray.

He thought of the days when they were young,