| Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (18381915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912. |
| |
| Edgar Allan Poe. 18091849 |
| |
| 85. To One in Paradise |
| |
| THOU wast all that to me, love, | |
| For which my soul did pine: | |
| A green isle in the sea, love, | |
| A fountain and a shrine | |
| All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers, | 5 |
| And all the flowers were mine. | |
| |
| Ah, dream too bright to last! | |
| Ah, starry Hope, that didst arise | |
| But to be overcast! | |
| A voice from out the Future cries, | 10 |
| "On! on!"but o'er the Past | |
| (Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies | |
| Mute, motionless, aghast. | |
| |
| For, alas! alas! with me | |
| The light of Life is o'er! | 15 |
| No moreno moreno more | |
| (Such language holds the solemn sea | |
| To the sands upon the shore) | |
| Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree, | |
| Or the stricken eagle soar. | 20 |
| |
| And all my days are trances, | |
| And all my nightly dreams | |
| Are where thy gray eye glances, | |
| And where thy footstep gleams | |
| In what ethereal dances, | 25 |
| By what eternal streams. | |
|
|