Vintage Valentine's Day Postcard

Perfectly printable as-is, or incorporate this pretty photograph in your next project. As you can see, it already has a bird on it.

Fancy Victorian Valentine's Day Card

This is a lovely dimensional Victorian card. The background was die-cut, and then layered with different lacy papers atop a colorful chromolithographic insert.

Gothic Victorian Clip Art Devil and Fallen Woman

Why Are You Weeping, Sister?

Why are you weeping, Sister?
Why are you sitting alone?

I’m bent and gray
And I’ve lost the way!
All my tomorrows were yesterday!
I traded them off for a wanton’s pay.
I bartered my graces for silks and laces
My heart I sold for a pot of gold–
Now I’m old.

Why did you do it, Sister,
Why did you sell your soul?

I was foolish and fair and my form was rare!
I longed for life’s baubles and did not care!
When we know not the price to be paid, we dare.
I listened when Vanity lied to me
And I ate the fruit of the Bitter Tree–
Now I’m old.

Why are you lonely, Sister?
Where have your friends all gone?

Friends I have none, for I went the road
Where women must harvest what men have sowed
And they never come back when the field is mowed.
They gave the lee of the cup to me
But I was blind and would not see–
Now I’m old.

Where are your lovers, Sister,
Where are your lovers now?

My lovers were many but all have run
I betrayed and deceived them every one
And they lived to learn what I had done.
A poisoned draught from my lips they quaffed
And I who knew it was poisoned, laughed–
Now I’m old.

Will they not help you, Sister,
In the name of your common sin?

There is no debt, for my lovers bought.
They paid my price for the things I brought.
I made the terms so they owe me naught.
I have no hold for ‘t was I who sold.
One offered his heart, but mine was cold–
Now I’m old.

Where is that lover, Sister?
He will come when he knows your need.

I broke his hope and I stained his pride.
I dragged him down in the undertide.
Alone and forsaken by me he died.
The blood that he shed is on my head
For all the while I knew that he bled–
Now I’m old.

Is there no mercy, Sister,
For the wanton whose course is spent?

When a woman is lovely the world will fawn.
But now when her beauty and grace are gone,
When her face is seamed and her limbs are drawn.
I’ve had my day and I’ve had my play.
In my winter of loneliness I must pay–
Now I’m old.

What of the morrow, Sister?
How shall the morrow be?

I must feed to the end upon remorse.
I must falter alone in my self-made course.
I must stagger alone with my self-made cross.
For I bartered my graces for silks and laces
My heart I sold for a pot of gold–
Now I’m old.

By Herbert Kaufman in Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls, or, War on the White Slave Trade, 1911

Flower Sentiments from the Victorian Era.

Victorian Scrapbook Clipart: A Basket of Flowers.

• Acacia, Yellow = Concealed Love
• Acanthus = Art
• Almond = Heedlessness
• Amaranth = Immortality
• Alyssum = Worth beyond Beauty
• American Star Wort = Welcome to a Stranger
• Anemone, Garden = Forsaken
• Auricula = Painting
• Aspen Tree = Lamentation
• Azalea = Romance
• Bay Leaf = I change but in dying
• Bell Flower, Pyramidal = Gratitude
• Bilberry = Treachery
• Black Poplar = Courage
• Blue Canterbury Bell = Constancy
• Borage = Bluntness, or Roughness of Manners
• Bundles of Reeds = Music
• Bramble = Remorse
• Carnation, Yellow = Disdain
• Candy Tuft = Indifference
• Cherry, Winter = Deception
• Cinquefoil = Parental Love
• Convolvulus Minor = Night
• Crown Imperial = Pride of Birth
• Crocus = Cheerfulness, Smiles
• Columbine = Desertion
• Clematis, English = Traveler’s Joy
• Corchorus = Impatience of Absence
• Coboea = Gossips
• Coreopsis = Love at First Sight
• Cross of Jerusalem = Devotion
• Cypress = Death
• Daisy = Innocence
• Daisy, Michaelmas = Farewell
• Dandelion = Coquetry
• Dead Leaves = Sadness
• Evergreen = Poverty
• Eglantine or sweet briar = Poetry
• Eupatorian = Delay
• Fig Marygold = Sacred Affection
• Geranium, Mourning = Despondency
• Guelder Rose = Winter
• Hackmetack = Single Blessedness
• Hawthorn = Hope
• Heath = Solitude
• Helenium = Tears
• Houstonia = Content
• Honeysuckle, Trumpet = I have dreamed of thee
• Hydrangea = Heartlessness
• Hyacinth = Grief
• India Cross = Resignation
• Ivy = Friendship
• Laburnum = Pensive Beauty
• Larkspur = Fickleness
• Lettuce = Cold Hearted
• Locust = Affection beyond the grave
• Love in a Mist = You puzzle me
• Linden Tree = Matrimony
• Lilac = First Emotion of Love
• Live Oak = Liberty
• Lucern = Life
• Marygold, French = Jealousy
• Meadow Saffron = My best days are gone
• Moss = Maternal Love
• Mountain Pink = Aspirings
• Milfoil, Common = War
• Moonwort = Forgetfulness
• Myosotis, or Mouse Ear = Forget me not
• Nasturtium = Patriotism
• Nettle = Slander
• Nightshade = Dark Thoughts
• Oleander = Beware
• Olive = Peace
• Pansy, or Heart’s Ear = Think of Me
• Passion Flower = Religious Fervor
• Pea = An appointed Meeting
• Peach, Blossom = This Heart is Thine
• Periwinkle = Sweet Remembrances
• Petunia = Thou art less proud than they deem thee
• Persimmon = Bury me amid Nature’s beauties
• Pheasant’s Eye, or Flos Adonis = Sorrowful Remembrances
• Phlox = Our souls are united
• Poplar, White = Time
• Primrose, Evening = Inconstancy
• Poppy = Consolation of Sleep
• Primrose = Early Youth
• Pride of China = Dissension
• Pink, Red = Woman’s Love
• Pine = Pity
• Pine Spruce = Hope in Adversity
• Pine Apple = You are perfect
• Ranunculus = You are radiant with charms
• Rose = Beauty
• Rosemary = Remembrance
• Saffron Flower = Excess is dangerous
• Snap Dragon = You are dazzling, but dangerous
• Snow Ball = Thoughts of Heaven
• Stramonium, Common = Disguise
• Sorrel = Wit
• Spindle Tree = Your image is engraven on my heart
• Syringa = Memory
• Thrift = Sympathy
• Tiger Flower = For once may pride befriend thee
• Tulip = Declaration of Love
• Tulip, Tree = Rural Happiness
• Venus’s Looking Glass = Flattery
• Venus’s Fly Trap = Have I caught you at last?
• Virgin’s Bower = Artifice
• Wall Speedwell = Fidelity
• White Lily = Purity
• Weeping Willow = Melancholy
• Woodbine = Fraternal Love
• Wood Sorrel = Joy
• Wormwood = Absence

Victorian Children Ice Skating Clip Art

Enjoy this beautiful Victorian era chromolithograph and make up a winter tale of your own. Printable as-is or incorporate it into your next craft project.

Edgar Allan Poe Portrait Clip Art

In reading the Wikipedia entry on Poe, I learned of this assessment by Aldous Huxley:

Aldous Huxley wrote that Poe’s writing “falls into vulgarity” by being “too poetical”—the equivalent of wearing a diamond ring on every finger.^[112]

To this I say: hey Huxley, just drop another tab and chill.

Cherubs Clip Art Vintage Decorative Typographical Element

A trio of wistfully sad cherubs that would be at home on a Valentine or funeral card. They seem to long for better days.