Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, Rediscovered.

When it comes to ranking the presidents, there are usually two contenders vying for the top spot,

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The two men have a lot in common. Both lost a parent as a child.

Both had a serious demeanor, and both dabbled with writing

poetry. But only one was any good at it. And let's just say it wasn't Washington. Consider this

declaration of love from a 15-year-old George Washington written in his expedition journal while he was surveying Virginia's northern neck.

Here are a few lines of the poem.

From your bright, sparkling eyes, I was undone.

Rays you have more transparent than the sun.

Amidst its glory in the rising day, none can you equal

in your bright array.

If you were looking at this poem on a page of paper, you'd see that the first letter of each

line, when read vertically, spells Francis Alexa.

The poem was supposed to be about a young lady named Francis Alexander.

Washington appears to have abandoned his effort four lines shy of completion.

Whether that was because his feelings for her dissolved or because he became frustrated with his ode,

we do not know.

Washington's only other known poem is from the same period and is just as melodramatic.

That, in an enraptured dream, I may, possess those joys denied by day.

Whether he ever wrote a verse about his wife Martha with whom he had a loving marriage,

we do not know. At George's request, Martha destroyed nearly all of their correspondence

shortly after his death. And that's probably a pretty good thing when it comes to Washington's poetry,

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