Comments on "Valentine's Day"

The poem “Saint Valentine’s Day was composed at Husbands Terrace, St. James South, Barbados on February 7, 2009. Saint Valentine event, though not a public holiday in Barbados, this fact does not diminish its impact on the general consciousness of Barbadians of all walks of life.

Barbados was once a British colony so whatever transpired in England found its way to our shores, and being called "Little England" said it all. Traditions handed down from England still hold true even though Barbados looks after its own affairs since 1966.

Here is a little history and myths about Saint Valentine’s Day. According to British history, Henry V was one of the great warrior kings of medieval England. He was very much loved by his subjects. He was born September 16, 1387. His father was King Henry IV (Bolingbroke) and Mary Bohun, daughter of the Earl of Hereford was his mother. He was their eldest son.

The Prince of Wales, for that was his title before he became King Henry V, fought many wars successfully. He was adept with the bow and arrow. He became King of England at the tender age of twenty-six in 1413. However, he was very experienced in raging and fighting wars from a very early age. His expansionist ideas moved him into recapturing the lands in France held by his ancestors, and laid claim to the French throne. His fame skyrocketed with his victory against the French at the Battle of Agincourt, a chapter in his life immortalized in Shakespeare's play. This battle led the French into agreeing to the Treaty of Troyes in May 1420. Thus, he was recognized as heir to the French throne and he married Catherine, the daughter of the French king, Charles VI of France. This marriage was an important part of the alliance agreed to with the Burgundians, culminating in the Treaty of Troyes which recognized King Henry V as heir to the French Throne.

King Henry V returned to England with Catherine after a period of three and a half years in 1421. In June he returned to France and died suddenly on
31 August 1422. By the way, his nine month old son succeeded him as King Henry VI and John Lydgate continued his close association with the new King of England, Henry VI in like manner he had with his father, King Henry V.

Before the Prince of Wales ascended to the throne of England he met
John Lydgate. Lydgate studied at Gloucester College, the Benedictine house at Oxford. The Prince of Wales recognized Lydgate's potential as a Lancastrian propagandist. Before he became King Henry V a year later, in 1412 he commissioned John Lydgate to work on his "Troy Book" (1412-1420). It was a translation and expansion of "Guido delle Colonne' Historia destructionis Troiae". This was the Prince of Wales' way of ensuring that the great epic about the Trojan War would live on as it were in "oure tonge". By literary circles, the "Troy Book" is rarely viewed as an epic, per se, but rather a collection of information about the political and moral counsel laced with mythical thought that linked England with Troy.

Lydgate's poetic structure has some semblance of the Chaucerian iambic pentameter verses, but varied in some cases by Lydgate's improvised poetic devices as the structure demanded. John Lydgate who was in addition to being a writer, poet, translator was a Benedictine monk and rose to the rank of a Benedictine Priest. He was educated at the Benedictine Monastery of Bury St. Edmund's. The archives shows the year of his birth at 1370 but I'm hard pressed to find the months of his birth and death. However, the records do show that he died in 1451.

Essentially one could not be wrong in saying that King Henry V looked upon John Lydgate as his Poet Laureate. Why, we have the historical framework that shows King Henry V employed him to be his writer, translator and poet. John Lydgate was a prolific poet and wrote many love poems. Hence, it would be no fallacy in believing that Prince of Wales soon to be King Henry V of England instructed Lydgate to write for him love letters, poems and notes. Throughout the time he was engaged in wars with France and courting Catherine Valois, the daughter of the French King, Charles VI it is purported that he instructed John Lydgate to write a love note and send it to her on Valentine's Day. One might well say that this act of King Henry V triggered the practice of sending love notes to friends and loved ones on February 14, handed down from medieval times and still persists in the 21st Century.

The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles Duke of Orleans, the grandson of Charles V of France to his wife while he was imprisoned in the tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt.

The greeting which was written in 1415 is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.

In England, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the seventeenth century. Then, by the middle of the eighteenth century, it was common for friends and lovers in all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. By the end of the century, printed cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged - so typical of the Victorian Era. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings.

So yes, Barbadians each year embrace this day of love and romance. Students across the island find themselves busy preparing their valentines to be distributed to shut-ins on Valentine's Day along with the many red roses they will be handing out. Schools do have their Valentine's Day project well organized. Across the island stores are well stocked with all types of candy, chocolates, red roses and gifts for all types of shoppers for their various valentines. There are many valentine fetes organized by various social groups, religious organizations, individuals and lovers, all in the name of Saint Valentine. Who is this mysterious Saint and why do we celebrate this holiday.

History does not give any guarantee as to the origin of Valentine's Day. There is the consensus though, that the history of Valentine's Day and its patron Saint - is shrouded in mystery. What is known is that February has long been acclaimed the month of romance and goes back to a pagan festival known as Lupercalia. In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleaned by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout the interior. Lupercalia, which began at the Ides of February, February 15, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman funders Romulus and Remus. The festival got on its way when members of the luperci, an order of Roman priests, gathered at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome were believed to have been cared for by lupa, a she-wolf.

The priests sacrificed a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. The boys sliced the goats hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets; gently they slapped both women and fields of crops with the goat-hide strips. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. The legend goes on to say that later in the day, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial which probably occurred around 270 A.D, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to 'Christianize' celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival. Now the puzzling questions in your mind perhaps are these. Who was Saint Valentine and how did he become associated with this ancient rite? We do know though, that even today, the Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus all of whom were martyred. However, we are again left with a number of legends. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men--his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Another legend would have it that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

This other legend about Valentine states that Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl--who may have been his jailer's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and most importantly, romantic icon. It is perhaps no surprise that by the middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular Saints in England and France.

Seven days before Saint Valentine’s Day, this Acrostic on “Saint Valentine’s Day” was written. It has non-standard pentameter verses and end-rhymes. When rhyming words come at the end of verses, they are called end-rhymes.

Pentameter verse has five iambic feet. The imagery of this poem does not give off a romantic spell but the dark stench of bloody love—love not returned in good measure but abuse.

Imagery is the representation through language of the senses that poets use to plant mind pictures. There are seven different kinds of imagery: auditory, gustatory, kinesthetic, olfactory, organic, tactile and visual. Poets use these imagery sensors to plant images in the mind’s eye.

Examples of the different kinds of imagery taken from poems taken from poetrynest are shown below; click on the links to read each poem.

Types of Imagery

1. Auditory
... Sound:
You scrape the kernels' ear
Because each has a big eye that will pop

2. Gustatory
... Taste:
Sweet tooth capped to prevent its deadly wound
Drops of Taukau honey fell from the jar

3. Kinestetic
... Movement or Tension:
Flinging words like flying feathers
Rain drops fell from eyes of Payne

4. Olfactory
... A smell:
Where foul scents abode
Heaps of carrion fumes perfumed the sky

5. Organic
... Internal sensation: fear, fatigue, thirst, hunger
The stillness haunts the lonely night,
Heavy rain keeps pouring down on the throng
Floods are everywhere in Poverty Bay.

6. Tactile
... Touch, for example: hardness, softness, wetness, heat, cold
Oh Rose! You cling and climb with flair
Two spirited harts meshed so very well

7. Visual
... in the mind's eye:
As nervous trees waved in the breeze
Of lines and curves of dangling sticky threads