Victorian Valentine Card: Romantic Couple with Giant Heart

The absolutely unhinged giant red heart looming behind a fenced couple like a sentient tumor is what immediately strikes a modern viewer — a mustachioed gentleman in a suit leans in for a kiss with a woman in a white ruffled dress who is clutching a small bouquet of purple flowers, because when you think romance, obviously props are the essential ingredient. A white dove witnesses the whole affair from the fence railing, presumably as an official notary of Victorian make-out sessions. The bottom verse reassures us that 'when heart meets heart, and lips are pressed, then doubts and fears are laid to rest,' which raises the question: what exactly were they doubting while standing in front of a heart the size of a boulder in an open field? Somehow the trees and bucolic background make it worse — this isn't a fever dream, this is just Tuesday.