Romantic

• But when words fail to express our feelings, lovers throughout history have turned to gifts.
• Whether given as part of a public romantic gesture, or in the quiet intimacy of a private moment, romantic gifts are a longstanding staple of romantic expression.
• But research shows that, if you really want to impress your sweetheart, jewellery and fashion accessories are the best options.

1. Sexy underwear, the Georgian way

• The corset’s predecessor, stays (fully boned laces bodices), were just a functional part of everyday dress for the Stuarts and Georgians, but they could still have romantic features.
• The busk was a long piece of wood, which slipped inside a channel at the front of the stays.

• Engraved with love poems, depictions of hearts, and sometimes even verses euphemistically referring to orgasms, these busks were often given as romantic gifts.
• Positioned between the breasts, the engraved rhymes often expressed jealousy for the busk, which got to intimately rest in the recipient’s cleavage.

2. Lovers’ eyes

Georgian lovers did not always conceal their love tokens in their underwear. Eye miniatures, also known as lovers’ eyes, were rings, brooches or pendants decorated with miniature paintings of a romantic partner’s eye. These were gifted between lovers as a wearable symbol of their love.
The Bible says that the eyes are the window to the soul, and the lover’s eye was considered an incredibly intimate form of portrait. Yet it was also very secretive and caused tantalising gossip. Much speculation ensued about who was wearing whose eye.

3. Lockets

• Early lockets often expressed religious devotion and familial connection, rather than romantic love.
• With the rise of mass manufacture in the 19th century, lockets became a cheaply available and widespread love token for the masses.

4. Hair jewellery

The practice of cutting a lock of your lover’s hair and wearing it in a locket close to your heart was historically widespread, but the Victorians took this trend even further.

• Hair jewellery – ornaments made from strands of human hair – was incredibly popular in 19th century Britain.
• While there were also commercial hair jewellery makers, some women crafted rings, bracelets and watch chains out of their lover’s hair at home.

5. Posey rings

Perhaps the most timeless of all wearable tokens of love is the posey ring. These simple gold bands, engraved with a romantic inscription, were consistently popular from the Medieval period. Their name comes from the French, poésy (poetry), referring to the words engraved inside.

• The inscriptions in these rings were often taken from published compendiums of sayings, such as The Mysteries of Love or the Arts of Wooing, published in 1658.
• Although it is doubtful that the wooden busk and hair-work jewellery will come back in fashion any time soon.

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Serena Dyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a survey commissioned by OpenTable , Valentine's Day is no longer just for couples:1 Americans will consider dining out with family (18%) or friends (15%) this year.
• The hottest Valentine's Day reservation isn't just the 14th: Like 2023, Valentine's Day falls midweek – if last year's trends are any indication, diners will be competing for hot tables on the Saturdays before and after the holiday.
• Whether seeking an intimate spot with candlelit ambiance or a lively atmosphere with stunning views, there's a restaurant for everyone on OpenTable's Top 100 Romantic Restaurants list.
• This year, it spans 34 states and Washington D.C. and once again, California takes the top spot with 12 restaurants, followed by Florida with seven.

• The "Webcomics Global Market Report 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.
• The webcomics market size is expected to see strong growth in the next few years.
• The anticipated rise in the usage of smart devices is set to drive the growth of the webcomics market in the projected period.
• The countries covered in the webcomics market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA, Italy, Canada, Spain.

• By contrast, celebrity status for the Irish poet Seamus Heaney – “Famous Seamus” – came early in his life.
• Thirty years later, he became the fourth Irishman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, following Shaw, Yeats and Beckett.
• By the time of his death in 2013, Heaney’s books accounted for some two-thirds of the sales of contemporary poets in the UK.

A life in letters

• The recently published edition of Heaney’s letters, edited by poet Christopher Reid, is a marvellous addition for an audience always hungry for more Heaney.
• Beginning with his “new life” in 1965 – marriage, house-buying in Belfast, manuscript acceptance – it bears witness to what Reid calls “the sheer outward-facing busyness” of Heaney’s life.
• The letters – abundant and revelatory, evidencing, as Reid puts it, Heaney’s “delight in his own fertile rhetoric” – are a treasure trove of delights for the reader.

Faith in poetry

• It does so in part because of Heaney’s faith in the poem – as answering to no agenda other than its own being, operating as its own “vindicating force”, undiminished by, and existing outside of, the noise and “busyness” of life.
• Few contemporary poets have devoted so much time to writing a defence of poetry as Heaney; fewer still have done so in terms so protective of poetry’s autonomy.
• Irish poet Leontia Flynn writes of finding herself “nearly as grateful for his defence of poetry as … for his poems”.
• Like poetry, it is both transformative and under threat; but most importantly, it endures.

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Fran Brearton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.