Complete poems of Edgar Allan Poe / [by Edgar Allan Poe] ; collected, edited, and arranged with memoir, textual notes and bibliography by J.H. Whitty [electronic text]

POEMS NOW FIRST COLLECTED

Fragment of a poem, from Poe's Southern Literary Messenger desk
Copyright, 1908, by J. H. Whitty

POEMS NOW FIRST COLLECTED

SPIRITUAL SONG

HARK, echo! — Hark; echo! 'T is the sound Of archangels, in happiness wrapt

ELIZABETH

ELIZBETH — it surely is most fit[Logic and common usage so commanding]In thy own book that first thy name be writ,Zeno 1 1.1 and other sages notwithstanding;And I have other reasons for so doingBesides my innate love of contradiction;Each poet — if a poet — in persuingThe muses thro' their bowers of Truth or Fiction,Has studied very little of his part,Read nothing, written less — in short 's a foolEndued with neither soul, nor sense, nor art,Being ignorant of one important rule,Employed in even the theses of the school —Called — I forget the heathenish Greek name —[Called anything, its meaning is the same]"Always write first things uppermost in the heart."

FROM AN ALBUM

ELIZABETH it is in vain you say"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:In vain those words from thee or L. E. L.Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,Breathe it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.Endymion, recollect, when Luna triedTo cure his love — was cured of all beside —His folly — pride — and passion — for he died.

TO SARAH

WHEN melancholy and alone,I sit on some moss-covered stoneBeside a murm'ring stream;I think I hear thy voice's soundIn every tuneful thing around,Oh! what a pleasant dream.

The silvery streamlet gurgling on,The mock-bird chirping on the thorn,Remind me, love, of thee.They seem to whisper thoughts of love,As thou didst when the stars aboveWitnessed thy vows to me; —

The gentle zephyr floating by,In chorus to my pensive sigh,Recalls the hour of bliss,When from thy balmy lips I drewFragrance as sweet as Hermia's dew,And left the first fond kiss.

In such an hour, when are forgot,The world, its cares, and my own lot,Thou seemest then to be,A gentle guarding spirit givenTo guide my wandering thoughts to heaven,If they should stray from thee.

THE GREAT MAN

THE great man lives forever shrined in the hearts of men,Albeit form and feature may fade from human ken;Recorded are his actions on history's living page — They shine with purer lustre with each successive age.Immortal aye immortal, undying as a GodThe sands of time are printed wherever his feet have trod.Above his dust no monument may proudly rear its head To mark the spot where resteth, the mighty and the dead.He needeth no mausoleum, nor shaft need pierce the skyTo point to coming ages, where his sacred ashes lie.No! that may be forgotten, but around his glorious nameWill shine the dazzling halo of a never dying fame.His requiem will be chanted in the wild bird's sweetest song,The summer breeze and wintry gale the sad notes will prolong,The flowers of spring time and the leaves of autumn be his pall,Long as the one shall blossom, long as the other fall. Here is a noble lesson. Oh! let it graven beIn characters unfading on the page of memory.Like the needle to the mariner amidst the tempest wrathLet it fire your hopes and guide you as you tread life's thorny path.

GRATITUDE

To —

As turns the eye to bless the hand that led its infant years,As list'ning still for that sweet voice which every tone endears,So I to thee, through mental power, would each remembrance trace,And bless the hand that led me on to fonts of lasting grace.As sailor on the billowy deep hath seen some light afar.And shunned the rock that lies between his pathway and the star,So hast thou been o'er stormy wave to me, 'mid sorrow's night,A beacon true whose glory spreads afar its rays of light.As flow sweet sounds of melody from strings drawn out by skill,As roll its wavelets o'er the soul and all its chambers fill,So came the words of holy truth endued with wisdom's zeal,So fell their impress on my heart and stamped it with their seal.

As runs the rivulet its course and swifter as it flows,Still murmuring of the hidden depths where first its waters rose,

So evermore as life glides on expanding far and wide, Will turn the heart to where at first was ope'd its holiest tide. As pours the captive bird its song to him who sets it free, So flows my breath in song of praise in gratitude to thee. As o'er the earth the sun reflects its rays of living light, So thou by thy pure rays of thought art power to mental sight.

AN ENIGMA

FIRST, find out a word that doth silence proclaim,And that backwards and forwards is always the same;Then next you must find out a feminine nameThat backwards and forwards is always the same;An act, or a writing on parchment whose nameBoth backwards and forwards is always the same;A fruit that is rare, whose botanical nameRead backwards and forwards is always the same;A note used in music, which time doth proclaim,And backwards and forwards is always the same;Their initials connected, a title will frame,That is justly the due of the fair married dame,Which backwards and forwards is always the same.

IMPROMPTU

To Kate Carol

WHEN from your gems of thought I turnTo those pure orbs, your heart to learn,I scarce know what to prize most high —The bright i-dea, or bright dear-eye.

Notes

• 1 1.1

  It was a saying of this philosopher "that one's own name should never appear in one's own book."