Clement C. Moore, My Reasons for Loving (poem by Catherine Elizabeth Taylor)

Poem by Eliza Moore in Mary Moore Sherman's Recollections of Clement C. Moore (1906)
via William & Mary Digital Archive

Clement C. Moore
MY REASONS FOR LOVING.

You ask me why I love him?
    I’ll tell the reason true:
Because he said so often
    With fervour “I love you.”

I loved him, yes, I loved him
    Because he told his flame
With such a skilled variety
    And whispered “Je vous aime.”

Because so sweetly tender
   As any swain on Arno,
In crowded streets he’d woo me,
   With Petrarch’s own “Vi amo.”

Because whenever coldly
    I’d answer him “Ah, no,”
He’d all my coldness banish
    By faltering “Te amo.”

Because when belles surrounded
    He’d still address to me
The words of love and learning,
    And sigh “Philea se.”

Because his English, French,
    Italian, Latin, Greek,
He crowned with noble Hebrew
    And dulcet “Ahobotick.”

 Moore's wife Catherine Elizabeth Taylor ("Eliza" in the family circle) composed these quatrains which were transcribed by Mary Moore Sherman and printed in the beautiful volume titled Recollections of Clement C. Moore, author of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906). Available online from the Nancy H. Marshall collection in the William & Mary Digital Archive:

"Includes 2 poems by Clement C Moore, including "A Visit from St. Nicholas." Part of the Nancy H. Marshall Night before Christmas collection. Swem Library copy includes and undated letter about the book by Margaret N. C. Bradley, niece of the author."

 http://hdl.handle.net/10288/13420

The second poem by Clement C. Moore in this volume of Recollections by his granddaughter is the lovely snow poem, Lines Written after a Snow-storm.

Related post:

• Biography of the heart of Clement C. Moore