Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Illustrated)

  

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF

EDGAR ALLAN POE

 (1809-1849)

Contents

 

The Poetry

 

THE COMPLETE POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

THE COMPLETE POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Tales

 

THE COMPLETE TALES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

THE COMPLETE TALES IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

The Novels

 

THE NARRATIVE OF ARTHUR GORDON PYM OF NANTUCKET

THE JOURNAL OF JULIUS RODMAN

The Play

 

POLITIAN

The Essays

 

INDEX OF THE COMPLETE ESSAYS

The Literary Criticism

 

THE LITERATI

MARGINALIA

FIFTY SUGGESTIONS

A CHAPTER ON AUTOGRAPHY

The Letters

 

INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS

INDEX OF CORRESPONDENTS, LETTERS AND DATES

The Criticism

 

EDGAR A. POE by James Russell Lowell.

AN EXTRACT FROM ‘FIGURES OF SEVERAL CENTURIES’ by Arthur Symons

AN EXTRACT FROM ‘LETTERS TO DEAD AUTHORS’ by Andrew Lang

THE CENTENARY OF EDGAR ALLAN POE by Edmund Goose

FROM POE TO VALÉRY by T.S. Eliot

The Biographies

 

THE STORY OF EDGAR ALLAN POE by Sherwin Cody

THE DREAMER by Mary Newton Stanard

MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR by Rufus Wilmot Griswold

DEATH OF EDGAR A. POE. by N. P. Willis

 

 

Delphi Classics 2011



 

THE COMPLETE WORKS OF

EDGAR ALLAN POE

 

 


 

The Poetry

 

 

Edgar Allan Poe's Birthplace, Carver Street, Boston


THE COMPLETE POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

 

POETRY

O, TEMPORA! O, MORES!

TAMERLANE

TO ——

TO ——

TO THE RIVER——

SONG

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

A DREAM

ROMANCE

FAIRY-LAND

THE LAKE —— TO——

EVENING STAR

THE HAPPIEST DAY

IMITATION

HYMN TO ARISTOGEITON AND HARMODIUS

DREAMS

IN YOUTH I HAVE KNOWN ONE

STANZAS

TO MARGARET

ALONE

TO ISAAC LEA

SONNET—TO SCIENCE

AL AARAAF

AN ACROSTIC

ELIZABETH

THE VALLEY OF UNREST

ISRAFEL

LENORE

A PAEAN

THE SLEEPER

THE CITY IN THE SEA

BRIDAL BALLAD

TO ONE IN PARADISE

THE COLISEUM

THE HAUNTED PALACE.

THE CONQUEROR WORM.

SILENCE

DREAM-LAND

HYMN

TO ZANTE

SCENES FROM "POLITIAN"

FANNY

SERENADE

TO F——S S. O——D

TO ELIZABETH

MAY QUEEN ODE

SPIRITUAL SONG

LATIN HYMN

LINES ON JOE LOCKE

A CAMPAIGN SONG

FOR ANNIE

TO F——

TO FRANCES S. OSGOOD

TO MARIE LOUISE (SHEW)

TO MARIE LOUISE (SHEW)

DREAM LAND

IMPROMPTU. TO KATE CAROL

EULALIE

EPIGRAM FOR WALL STREET

THE RAVEN

THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

A VALENTINE

THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN

DEEP IN EARTH

ULALUME

LINES ON ALE

TO HELEN

AN ENIGMA

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

ELDORADO

ANNABEL LEE

TO MY MOTHER

THE BELLS

TO ISADORE

THE VILLAGE STREET

THE FOREST REVERIE

 


THE COMPLETE POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER

A CAMPAIGN SONG

A DREAM

A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

A PAEAN

A VALENTINE

AL AARAAF

ALONE

AN ACROSTIC

AN ENIGMA

ANNABEL LEE

BRIDAL BALLAD

DEEP IN EARTH

DREAM LAND

DREAM-LAND

DREAMS

ELDORADO

ELIZABETH

EPIGRAM FOR WALL STREET

EULALIE

EVENING STAR

FAIRY-LAND

FANNY

FOR ANNIE

HYMN

HYMN TO ARISTOGEITON AND HARMODIUS

IMITATION

IMPROMPTU. TO KATE CAROL

IN YOUTH I HAVE KNOWN ONE

ISRAFEL

LATIN HYMN

LENORE

LINES ON ALE

LINES ON JOE LOCKE

MAY QUEEN ODE

O, TEMPORA! O, MORES!

POETRY

ROMANCE

SCENES FROM "POLITIAN"

SERENADE

SILENCE

SONG

SONNET—TO SCIENCE

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

SPIRITUAL SONG

STANZAS

TAMERLANE

THE BELLS

THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN

THE CITY IN THE SEA

THE COLISEUM

THE CONQUEROR WORM.

THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS

THE FOREST REVERIE

THE HAPPIEST DAY

THE HAUNTED PALACE.

THE LAKE —— TO——

THE RAVEN

THE SLEEPER

THE VALLEY OF UNREST

THE VILLAGE STREET

TO ——

TO ——

TO ELIZABETH

TO F——

TO FRANCES S. OSGOOD

TO F——S S. O——D

TO HELEN

TO ISAAC LEA

TO ISADORE

TO MARGARET

TO MARIE LOUISE (SHEW)

TO MARIE LOUISE (SHEW)

TO MY MOTHER

TO ONE IN PARADISE

TO THE RIVER——

TO ZANTE

ULALUME


 

 

POETRY

 

 

This is the earliest surviving poem in Poe's hand. It is written on the same page as some financial records for John Allan's business. These notes were filed among the Ellis & Allan papers for November 1824. John Allan was the young Edgar's foster-father.

 

Last night, with many cares and toils oppress'd

Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest —


 

 

Poe as a child


O, TEMPORA! O, MORES!

 

For the argument in favor of accepting this poem as by Poe, refer to Jay B. Hubbell, "'O, Tempora! O, Mores!' A Juvenile Poem by Edgar Allan Poe," Elizabethan Studies and Other Essays in Honor of George F. Reynolds, University of Colorado Studies, series B, Studies in the Humanities, vol. 2, no. 4 pp. 314-321.

 

O, Times! O, Manners! It is my opinion

That you are changing sadly your dominion —

I mean the reign of manners hath long ceased,

For men have none at all, or bad at least;

And as for times, altho' 'tis said by many

The "good old times" were far the worst of any,

Of which sound doctrine l believe each tittle,

Yet still I think these worse than them a little.

 

I've been a thinking — isn't that the phrase? —

I like your Yankee words and Yankee ways —

I've been a thinking, whether it were best

To take things seriously, or all in jest;

Whether, with grim Heraclitus of yore,

To weep, as he did, till his eyes were sore,

Or rather laugh with him, that queer philosopher,

Democritus of Thrace, who used to toss over

The page of life and grin at the dog-ears,

As though he'd say, "Why, who the devil cares?"

 

This is a question which, oh heaven, withdraw

The luckless query from a member's claw!

Instead of two sides, Job [Bob] has nearly eight,

Each fit to furnish forth four hours debate.

What shall be done? I'll lay it on the table,

And take the matter up when I'm more able,

And, in the meantime, to prevent all bother,

I'll neither laugh with one, nor cry with t'other,

Nor deal in flatt'ry or aspersions foul,

But, taking one by each hand, merely growl.

 

Ah, growl, say you, my friend, and pray at what?

Why, really, sir, I almost had forgot —

But, damn it, sir, I deem it a disgrace

That things should stare us boldly in the face,

And daily strut the street with bows and scrapes,

Who would be men by imitating apes.

I beg your pardon, reader, for the oath

The monkeys make me swear, though something loth;

I'm apt to be discursive in my style,

But pray be patient; yet a little while

Will change me, and as politicians do,

I'll mend my manners and my measures too.

 

Of all the cities — and I've seen no few;

For I have travelled, friend, as well as you —

I don't remember one, upon my soul,

But take it generally upon the whole,

(As members say they like their logick [logic] taken,

Because divided, it may chance be shaken)

So pat, agreeable and vastly proper

As this for a neat, frisky counter-hopper;

Here he may revel to his heart's content,

Flounce like a fish in his own element,

Toss back his fine curls from their forehead fair,

And hop o'er counters with a Vester's air,

Complete at night what he began A.M.,

And having cheated ladies, dance with them;

For, at a ball, what fair one can escape

The pretty little hand that sold her tape,

Or who so cold, so callous to refuse

The youth who cut the ribbon for her shoes!

 

One of these fish, par excellence the beau —

God help me! — it has been my lot to know,

At least by sight, for I'm a timid man,

And always keep from laughing, if I can;

But speak to him, he'll make you such grimace,

Lord! to be grave exceeds the power of face.

The hearts of all the ladies are with him,

Their bright eyes on his Tom and Jerry brim

And dove-tailed coat, obtained at cost; while then

Those eyes won't turn on anything like men.

 

His very voice is musical delight,

His form, once seen, becomes a part of sight;

In short, his shirt collar, his look, his tone is

The "beau ideal" fancied for Adonis.

Philosophers have often held dispute

As to the seat of thought in man and brute;

For that the power of thought attends the latter

My friend, the beau, hath made a settled matter,

And spite of all dogmas, current in all ages,

One settled fact is better than ten sages.

 

For he does think, though I am oft in doubt

If I can tell exactly what about.

Ah, yes! his little foot and ankle trim,

'Tis there the seat of reason lies in him,

A wise philosopher would shake his head,

He then, of course, must shake his foot instead.

At me, in vengeance, shall that foot be shaken —

Another proof of thought, I'm not mistaken —

Because to his cat's eyes I hold a glass,

And let him see himself, a proper ass!

I think he'll take this likeness to himself,

But if he won't, he shall, a stupid elf,

And, lest the guessing throw the fool in fits,

I close the portrait with the name of PITTS.

 


 

 

Poe's mother


TAMERLANE

 

The very rare first edition cover of Poe’s first book of poetry

 

 


TAMERLANE

 

  KIND solace in a dying hour!

         Such, father, is not (now) my theme—

     I will not madly deem that power

             Of Earth may shrive me of the sin

             Unearthly pride hath revell'd in—

         I have no time to dote or dream:

     You call it hope—that fire of fire!

     It is but agony of desire:

     If I can hope—Oh God! I can—

         Its fount is holier—more divine—

     I would not call thee fool, old man,

         But such is not a gift of thine.

 

     Know thou the secret of a spirit

         Bow'd from its wild pride into shame.

     O! yearning heart! I did inherit

         Thy withering portion with the fame,

     The searing glory which hath shone

     Amid the jewels of my throne,

     Halo of Hell! and with a pain

     Not Hell shall make me fear again—

     O! craving heart, for the lost flowers

     And sunshine of my summer hours!

     Th' undying voice of that dead time,

     With its interminable chime,

     Rings, in the spirit of a spell,

     Upon thy emptiness—a knell.

 

     I have not always been as now:

     The fever'd diadem on my brow

         I claim'd and won usurpingly—

     Hath not the same fierce heirdom given

         Rome to the Caesar—this to me?

             The heritage of a kingly mind,

     And a proud spirit which hath striven

             Triumphantly with human kind.

 

     On mountain soil I first drew life:

         The mists of the Taglay have shed

         Nightly their dews upon my head,

     And, I believe, the winged strife

     And tumult of the headlong air

     Have nestled in my very hair.

 

     So late from Heaven—that dew—it fell

         (Mid dreams of an unholy night)

     Upon me—with the touch of Hell,

         While the red flashing of the light

     From clouds that hung, like banners, o'er,

         Appeared to my half-closing eye

         The pageantry of monarchy,

     And the deep trumpet-thunder's roar

         Came hurriedly upon me, telling

             Of human battle, where my voice,

         My own voice, silly child!—was swelling

             (O! how my spirit would rejoice,

     And leap within me at the cry)

     The battle-cry of Victory!

 

     The rain came down upon my head

         Unshelter'd—and the heavy wind

         Was giantlike—so thou, my mind!—

     It was but man, I thought, who shed

         Laurels upon me: and the rush—

     The torrent of the chilly air

     Gurgled within my ear the crush

         Of empires—with the captive's prayer—

     The hum of suiters—and the tone

     Of flattery 'round a sovereign's throne.

 

     My passions, from that hapless hour,

         Usurp'd a tyranny which men

     Have deem'd, since I have reach'd to power;

             My innate nature—be it so:

         But, father, there liv'd one who, then,

     Then—in my boyhood—when their fire

             Burn'd with a still intenser glow,

     (For passion must, with youth, expire)

         E'en then who knew this iron heart

         In woman's weakness had a part.

 

     I have no words—alas!—to tell

     The loveliness of loving well!

     Nor would I now attempt to trace

     The more than beauty of a face

     Whose lineaments, upon my mind,

     Are—shadows on th' unstable wind:

     Thus I remember having dwelt

     Some page of early lore upon,

     With loitering eye, till I have felt

     The letters—with their meaning—melt

     To fantasies—with none.

 

     O, she was worthy of all love!

     Love—as in infancy was mine—

     'Twas such as angel minds above

     Might envy; her young heart the shrine

     On which my ev'ry hope and thought

         Were incense—then a goodly gift,

             For they were childish—and upright—

     Pure—as her young example taught:

         Why did I leave it, and, adrift,

             Trust to the fire within, for light?

 

     We grew in age—and love—together,

         Roaming the forest, and the wild;

     My breast her shield in wintry weather—

         And, when the friendly sunshine smil'd,

     And she would mark the opening skies,

     I saw no Heaven—but in her eyes.

 

     Young Love's first lesson is—the heart:

         For 'mid that sunshine, and those smiles,

     When, from our little cares apart,

         And laughing at her girlish wiles,

     I'd throw me on her throbbing breast,

         And pour my spirit out in tears—

     There was no need to speak the rest—

         No need to quiet any fears

     Of her—who ask'd no reason why,

     But turn'd on me her quiet eye!

 

     Yet more than worthy of the love

     My spirit struggled with, and strove,

     When, on the mountain peak, alone,

     Ambition lent it a new tone—

     I had no being—but in thee:

         The world, and all it did contain

     In the earth—the air—the sea—

         Its joy—its little lot of pain

     That was new pleasure—the ideal,

         Dim, vanities of dreams by night—

     And dimmer nothings which were real—

         (Shadows—and a more shadowy light!)

     Parted upon their misty wings,

             And, so, confusedly, became

             Thine image, and—a name—a name!

     Two separate—yet most intimate things.

 

     I was ambitious—have you known

             The passion, father? You have not:

     A cottager, I mark'd a throne

     Of half the world as all my own,

             And murmur'd at such lowly lot—

     But, just like any other dream,

             Upon the vapour of the dew

     My own had past, did not the beam

             Of beauty which did while it thro'

     The minute—the hour—the day—oppress

     My mind with double loveliness.

 

     We walk'd together on the crown

     Of a high mountain which look'd down

     Afar from its proud natural towers

         Of rock and forest, on the hills—

     The dwindled hills! begirt with bowers

         And shouting with a thousand rills.

 

     I spoke to her of power and pride,

         But mystically—in such guise

     That she might deem it nought beside

         The moment's converse; in her eyes

     I read, perhaps too carelessly—

         A mingled feeling with my own—

     The flush on her bright cheek, to me

         Seem'd to become a queenly throne

     Too well that I should let it be

         Light in the wilderness alone.

 

     I wrapp'd myself in grandeur then,

         And donn'd a visionary crown—

             Yet it was not that Fantasy

             Had thrown her mantle over me—

     But that, among the rabble—men,

             Lion ambition is chain'd down—

     And crouches to a keeper's hand—

     Not so in deserts where the grand

     The wild—the terrible conspire

     With their own breath to fan his fire.

 

     Look 'round thee now on Samarcand!—

         Is not she queen of Earth? her pride

     Above all cities? in her hand

         Their destinies? in all beside

     Of glory which the world hath known

     Stands she not nobly and alone?

     Falling—her veriest stepping-stone

     Shall form the pedestal of a throne—

     And who her sovereign? Timour—he

         Whom the astonished people saw

     Striding o'er empires haughtily

         A diadem'd outlaw—

 

     O! human love! thou spirit given,

     On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!

     Which fall'st into the soul like rain

     Upon the Siroc wither'd plain,

     And failing in thy power to bless

     But leav'st the heart a wilderness!

     Idea! which bindest life around

     With music of so strange a sound

     And beauty of so wild a birth—

     Farewell! for I have won the Earth!

 

     When Hope, the eagle that tower'd, could see

         No cliff beyond him in the sky,

     His pinions were bent droopingly—

         And homeward turn'd his soften'd eye.

     'Twas sunset: when the sun will part

     There comes a sullenness of heart

     To him who still would look upon

     The glory of the summer sun.

     That soul will hate the ev'ning mist,

     So often lovely, and will list

     To the sound of the coming darkness (known

     To those whose spirits hearken) as one

     Who, in a dream of night, would fly

     But cannot from a danger nigh.

 

     What tho' the moon—the white moon

     Shed all the splendour of her noon,

     Her smile is chilly—and her beam,

     In that time of dreariness, will seem

     (So like you gather in your breath)

     A portrait taken after death.

     And boyhood is a summer sun

     Whose waning is the dreariest one—

     For all we live to know is known,

     And all we seek to keep hath flown—

     Let life, then, as the day-flower, fall

     With the noon-day beauty—which is all.

 

     I reach'd my home—my home no more—

         For all had flown who made it so—

     I pass'd from out its mossy door,

         And, tho' my tread was soft and low,

     A voice came from the threshold stone

     Of one whom I had earlier known—

         O! I defy thee, Hell, to show

         On beds of fire that burn below,

         A humbler heart—a deeper wo—

 

     Father, I firmly do believe—

         I know—for Death, who comes for me

             From regions of the blest afar,

     Where there is nothing to deceive,

             Hath left his iron gate ajar,

         And rays of truth you cannot see

         Are flashing thro' Eternity—

     I do believe that Eblis hath

     A snare in ev'ry human path—

     Else how, when in the holy grove

     I wandered of the idol, Love,

     Who daily scents his snowy wings

     With incense of burnt offerings

     From the most unpolluted things,

     Whose pleasant bowers are yet so riven

     Above with trelliced rays from Heaven

     No mote may shun—no tiniest fly

     The light'ning of his eagle eye—

     How was it that Ambition crept,

         Unseen, amid the revels there,

     Till growing bold, he laughed and leapt

         In the tangles of Love's very hair?

1829.






TO ——

 

                     1

 

     The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

         The wantonest singing birds

     Are lips—and all thy melody

         Of lip-begotten words—

 

                      2

 

     Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrin'd

         Then desolately fall,

     O! God! on my funereal mind

         Like starlight on a pall—

 

                       3

 

     Thy heart—thy heart!—I wake and sigh,

         And sleep to dream till day

     Of truth that gold can never buy—

         Of the trifles that it may.

1829.




TO ——

 

     I HEED not that my earthly lot

 

         Hath-little of Earth in it—

 

     That years of love have been forgot

 

     In the hatred of a minute:—

 

     I mourn not that the desolate

 

         Are happier, sweet, than I,

 

     But that you sorrow for my fate

 

     Who am a passer-by.

1829.




TO THE RIVER——

 

     FAIR river! in thy bright, clear flow

         Of crystal, wandering water,

     Thou art an emblem of the glow

             Of beauty—the unhidden heart—

             The playful maziness of art

     In old Alberto's daughter;

 

     But when within thy wave she looks—

             Which glistens then, and trembles—

     Why, then, the prettiest of brooks

             Her worshipper resembles;

     For in my heart, as in thy stream,

         Her image deeply lies—

     His heart which trembles at the beam

         Of her soul-searching eyes.

1829.




SONG

 

     I SAW thee on thy bridal day—

         When a burning blush came o'er thee,

     Though happiness around thee lay,

         The world all love before thee:

 

     And in thine eye a kindling light

         (Whatever it might be)

     Was all on Earth my aching sight

        Of Loveliness could see.

 

     That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame—

         As such it well may pass—

     Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame

         In the breast of him, alas!

 

     Who saw thee on that bridal day,

         When that deep blush would come o'er thee,

     Though happiness around thee lay,

         The world all love before thee.

1827.




SPIRITS OF THE DEAD

 

                                 1

 

     Thy soul shall find itself alone

     'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone—

     Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

     Into thine hour of secrecy:

 

                                 2

 

     Be silent in that solitude

         Which is not loneliness—for then

     The spirits of the dead who stood

         In life before thee are again

     In death around thee—and their will

     Shall then overshadow thee: be still.

 

                                3

 

     For the night—tho' clear—shall frown—

     And the stars shall look not down,

     From their high thrones in the Heaven,

     With light like Hope to mortals given—

     But their red orbs, without beam,

     To thy weariness shall seem

     As a burning and a fever

     Which would cling to thee for ever:

 

                               4

 

     Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish—

     Now are visions ne'er to vanish—

     From thy spirit shall they pass

     No more—like dew-drop from the grass:

 

                              5

 

     The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

     And the mist upon the hill

     Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

     Is a symbol and a token—

     How it hangs upon the trees,

     A mystery of mysteries!—

1827.




A DREAM

 

     In visions of the dark night

         I have dreamed of joy departed—

     But a waking dreams of life and light

         Hath left me broken-hearted.

 

     Ah! what is not a dream by day

         To him whose eyes are cast

     On things around him with a ray

         Turned back upon the past?

 

     That holy dream—that holy dream,

         While all the world were chiding,

     Hath cheered me as a lovely beam

         A lonely spirit guiding.

 

     What though that light, thro' storm and night,

         So trembled from afar-

     What could there be more purely bright

         In Truths day-star?

1827.




ROMANCE

 

     ROMANCE, who loves to nod and sing,

     With drowsy head and folded wing,

     Among the green leaves as they shake

     Far down within some shadowy lake,

     To me a painted paroquet

     Hath been—a most familiar bird—

     Taught me my alphabet to say—

     To lisp my very earliest word

     While in the wild wood I did lie,

     A child—with a most knowing eye.

 

     Of late, eternal Condor years

     So shake the very Heaven on high

     With tumult as they thunder by,

     I have no time for idle cares

     Through gazing on the unquiet sky.

     And when an hour with calmer wings

     Its down upon thy spirit flings—

     That little time with lyre and rhyme

     To while away—forbidden things!

     My heart would feel to be a crime

     Unless it trembled with the strings.

 

     1829.

 

 


 

 

FAIRY-LAND

 

     DIM vales—and shadowy floods—

     And cloudy-looking woods,

     Whose forms we can't discover

     For the tears that drip all over

     Huge moons there wax and wane—

     Again—again—again—

     Every moment of the night—

     Forever changing places—

     And they put out the star-light

     With the breath from their pale faces.

     About twelve by the moon-dial

     One, more filmy than the rest

     (A kind which, upon trial,

     They have found to be the best)

     Comes down—still down—and down

     With its centre on the crown

     Of a mountain's eminence,

     While its wide circumference

     In easy drapery falls

     Over hamlets, over halls,

     Wherever they may be—

     O'er the strange woods—o'er the sea—

     Over spirits on the wing—

     Over every drowsy thing—

     And buries them up quite

     In a labyrinth of light—

     And then, how deep!—O, deep!

     Is the passion of their sleep.

     In the morning they arise,

     And their moony covering

     Is soaring in the skies,

     With the tempests as they toss,

     Like—almost any thing—

     Or a yellow Albatross.

     They use that moon no more

     For the same end as before—

     Videlicet a tent—

     Which I think extravagant:

     Its atomies, however,

     Into a shower dissever,

     Of which those butterflies,

     Of Earth, who seek the skies,

     And so come down again

     (Never-contented things!)

     Have brought a specimen

     Upon their quivering wings.

 

     1831.


 



THE LAKE —— TO——

 

     IN spring of youth it was my lot

     To haunt of the wide earth a spot

     The which I could not love the less—

     So lovely was the loneliness

     Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,

     And the tall pines that tower'd around.

 

     But when the Night had thrown her pall

     Upon that spot, as upon all,

     And the mystic wind went by

     Murmuring in melody—

     Then—ah then I would awake

     To the terror of the lone lake.

 

     Yet that terror was not fright,

     But a tremulous delight—

     A feeling not the jewelled mine

     Could teach or bribe me to define—

     Nor Love—although the Love were thine.

 

     Death was in that poisonous wave,

     And in its gulf a fitting grave

     For him who thence could solace bring

     To his lone imagining—

     Whose solitary soul could make

     An Eden of that dim lake.

 

     1827.

 

 


 

 

EVENING STAR

 

     'TWAS noontide of summer,

        And midtime of night,

     And stars, in their orbits,

        Shone pale, through the light

     Of the brighter, cold moon.

        'Mid planets her slaves,

     Herself in the Heavens,

        Her beam on the waves.

 

        I gazed awhile

        On her cold smile;

     Too cold-too cold for me—

        There passed, as a shroud,

        A fleecy cloud,

     And I turned away to thee,

 

        Proud Evening Star,

        In thy glory afar

     And dearer thy beam shall be;

        For joy to my heart

        Is the proud part

     Thou bearest in Heaven at night.,

        And more I admire

        Thy distant fire,

     Than that colder, lowly light.

 

     1827.




THE HAPPIEST DAY

 

     I

 

     THE happiest day-the happiest hour

     My seared and blighted heart hath known,

     The highest hope of pride and power,

     I feel hath flown.

 

     Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween

     But they have vanished long, alas!

     The visions of my youth have been

     But let them pass.

 

     III

 

     And pride, what have I now with thee?

     Another brow may ev'n inherit

     The venom thou hast poured on me

     Be still my spirit!

 

     IV

 

     The happiest day-the happiest hour

     Mine eyes shall see-have ever seen

     The brightest glance of pride and power

     I feet have been:

 

     V

 

     But were that hope of pride and power

     Now offered with the pain

     Ev'n then I felt-that brightest hour

     I would not live again:

 

             VI

 

     For on its wing was dark alloy

     And as it fluttered-fell

     An essence-powerful to destroy

     A soul that knew it well.

 

     1827.




IMITATION

 

     A dark unfathom'd tide

     Of interminable pride—

     A mystery, and a dream,

     Should my early life seem;

     I say that dream was fraught

     With a wild, and waking thought

     Of beings that have been,

     Which my spirit hath not seen,

     Had I let them pass me by,

     With a dreaming eye!

     Let none of earth inherit

     That vision on my spirit;

     Those thoughts I would control

     As a spell upon his soul:

     For that bright hope at last

     And that light time have past,

     And my worldly rest hath gone

     With a sigh as it pass'd on

     I care not tho' it perish

     With a thought I then did cherish.

     1827.

 

 


 

 

HYMN TO ARISTOGEITON AND HARMODIUS

 

Translation from the Greek

                I

 

     WREATHED in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal

     Like those champions devoted and brave,

     When they plunged in the tyrant their steel,

     And to Athens deliverance gave.

 

                II

 

     Beloved heroes! your deathless souls roam

     In the joy breathing isles of the blest;

     Where the mighty of old have their home

     Where Achilles and Diomed rest

 

                III

 

     In fresh myrtle my blade I'll entwine,

     Like Harmodius, the gallant and good,

     When he made at the tutelar shrine

     A libation of Tyranny's blood.

 

                IV

 

     Ye deliverers of Athens from shame!

     Ye avengers of Liberty's wrongs!

     Endless ages shall cherish your fame,

     Embalmed in their echoing songs!

 

     1827.




 

DREAMS

 

     Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!

     My spirit not awak'ning, till the beam

     Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:

     Yes! tho' that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,

     'Twere better than the dull reality

     Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,

     And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,

     A chaos of deep passion from his birth!

 

     But should it be—that dream eternally

     Continuing—as dreams have been to me

     In my young boyhood—should it thus be given,

     'Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!

     For I have revell'd, when the sun was bright

     In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,

     And left unheedingly my very heart

     In climes of mine imagining—apart

     From mine own home, with beings that have been

     Of mine own thought—what more could I have seen?

 

     'Twas once & only once & the wild hour

     From my rememberance shall not pass—some power

     Or spell had bound me—'twas the chilly wind

     Came o'er me in the night & left behind

     Its image on my spirit, or the moon

     Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon

     Too coldly—or the stars—howe'er it was

     That dream was as that night wind—let it pass.

 

     I have been happy—tho' but in a dream

     I have been happy—& I love the theme—

     Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life—

     As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife

     Of semblance with reality which brings

     To the delirious eye more lovely things

     Of Paradise & Love—& all our own!

     Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

 

         {From an earlier MS. Than in the book—ED.}

 

 


 

 

IN YOUTH I HAVE KNOWN ONE

 

OR

 

STANZAS

 

     How often we forget all time, when lone

     Admiring Nature's universal throne;

     Her woods—her wilds—her mountains-the intense

     Reply of Hers to Our intelligence!

 Byron

 

                             I

 

     IN youth I have known one with whom the Earth

         In secret communing held-as he with it,

     In daylight, and in beauty, from his birth:

         Whose fervid, flickering torch of life was lit

     From the sun and stars, whence he had drawn forth

         A passionate light such for his spirit was fit

     And yet that spirit knew-not in the hour

         Of its own fervor-what had o'er it power.

 

                            II

 

     Perhaps it may be that my mind is wrought

         To a fever* by the moonbeam that hangs o'er,

     But I will half believe that wild light fraught

         With more of sovereignty than ancient lore

     Hath ever told-or is it of a thought

         The unembodied essence, and no more

     That with a quickening spell doth o'er us pass

         As dew of the night-time, o'er the summer grass?

 

                                   III

 

     Doth o'er us pass, when, as th' expanding eye

         To the loved object-so the tear to the lid

     Will start, which lately slept in apathy?

         And yet it need not be—(that object) hid

     From us in life-but common-which doth lie

         Each hour before us—but then only bid

     With a strange sound, as of a harp-string broken

         T' awake us—'Tis a symbol and a token

 

                               IV

 

     Of what in other worlds shall be—and given

         In beauty by our God, to those alone

     Who otherwise would fall from life and Heaven

         Drawn by their heart's passion, and that tone,

     That high tone of the spirit which hath striven

         Though not with Faith-with godliness—whose throne

     With desperate energy 't hath beaten down;

         Wearing its own deep feeling as a crown.

 

          * Query "fervor"?—ED.

A PÆAN.

                         I.

 

     How shall the burial rite be read?

         The solemn song be sung?

     The requiem for the loveliest dead,

         That ever died so young?

 

                         II.

 

     Her friends are gazing on her,

         And on her gaudy bier,

     And weep!—oh! to dishonor

         Dead beauty with a tear!

 

                        III.

 

     They loved her for her wealth—

         And they hated her for her pride—

     But she grew in feeble health,

         And they love her—that she died.

 

                       IV.

 

     They tell me (while they speak

         Of her "costly broider'd pall")

     That my voice is growing weak—

         That I should not sing at all—

 

                        V.

 

     Or that my tone should be

         Tun'd to such solemn song

     So mournfully—so mournfully,

         That the dead may feel no wrong.

 

                       VI.

 

     But she is gone above,

         With young Hope at her side,

     And I am drunk with love

         Of the dead, who is my bride.—

 

                      VII.

 

     Of the dead—dead who lies

         All perfum'd there,

     With the death upon her eyes,

         And the life upon her hair.

 

                     VIII.

 

     Thus on the coffin loud and long

         I strike—the murmur sent

     Through the grey chambers to my song,

         Shall be the accompaniment.

 

                      IX.

 

     Thou died'st in thy life's June—

         But thou did'st not die too fair:

     Thou did'st not die too soon,

         Nor with too calm an air.

 

                       X.

 

     From more than fiends on earth,

         Thy life and love are riven,

     To join the untainted mirth

         Of more than thrones in heaven—

 

                      XII.

 

     Therefore, to thee this night

         I will no requiem raise,

     But waft thee on thy flight,

         With a Pæan of old days.

 


TO MARGARET

 

This may be an unfinished poem, never published in Poe's lifetime.