Go ahead, be unabashedly romantic this Valentine’s Day and give your darling the gift of words along with that little something special. Follow our lead and find the perfect prose to inscribe in a beautiful card to set the mood for the gift. Shakespeare would be proud. Cristina Bolling

CUFFLINKS:

Come live with me and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,

Woods or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,

Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

(From “Come Live With Me and Be My Love,” by Christopher Marlowe)

LINGERIE:

It is the hour when from the boughs

The nightingale’s high note is heard;

It is the hour – when lover’s vows

Seem sweet in every whisper’d word;

And gentle winds and waters near,

Make music to the lonely ear.

(From “It is the hour,” by Lord Byron)

PAJAMAS:

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!

...I will not ask a dearer bliss;

Come with the starry beams, my love,

...And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

(From “Stanzas,” by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

HEART-CUTOUT BRACELET:

My true love hath my heart and I have his,

By just exchange one for another given;

I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss,

There never was a better bargain driven.

(From “My True Love Hath My Heart and I Have His,” by Sir Phillip Sydney)

LIP GLOSS:

She kissed me again, reaching that place

that sends messages to toes and fingertips,

then all the way to something like home.

Some music was playing on its own.

(From “The Kiss,” by Stephen Dunn)

CANDLE:

I love your eyes when the lovelight lies

Lit with a passionate fire.

(From “I Love You,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

PERFUME:

To clasp you now and feel your head close-pressed,

Scented and warm against my beating breast;

To whisper soft and quivering your name,

And drink the passion burning in your frame...

(From “Romance,” by Claude McKay)

DIAMOND:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its lovliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

(From “A Thing of Beauty (Endymion),” by John Keats)

LINGERIE:

Wild nights! Wild nights!

Were I with thee,

Wild nights should be

Our luxury!

(From “Wild Nights,” by Emily Dickinson)

BAG:

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

(From “[i carry your heart with me (i carry it in],” by e.e. cummings)