Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
To One in Paradise
Thou wast that all 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,
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,
“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!
No more—no more—no more—
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar!
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams—
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
~ Edgar Allan Poe
In this astounding verse Poe languishes over the lost love of his past while in the last stanza he expresses his current state of ethereal communion with his deceased beloved. In the final stanza especially, Poe employs the use of double rhyming and alliteration. This poem also, by utilizing an almost equal balance of consonant and vowel sounds, produces a very rich, melodic sound when read aloud or in silence.
My comments in this series of posts will always be brief, and I hope, to the point.
John Lars Zwerenz
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