“The death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical subject there is.”
~Edgar Allan Poe
Since I’ve already posted about my favorite, Annabel Lee, and about The Raven, here’s another poem by Poe on the death of a beautiful woman.
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,
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! 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.
Poe Links:
Tricia reviews Nevermore: A Photobiography of Edgar Allan Poe by Karen Lange.
The Bells and tintinnabulation.
My favorite Poe poem: Annabel Lee.
The Edgar Allan Poe Calendar, a blog celebrating the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe.
And I can’t resist including this video of John Astin performing The Raven:
Certainly not one of my favorites, but that last stanza is just inherently beautiful. Lately, my favorite Poe poem has become “The Conqueror Worm” – which isn’t in the “death of a beautiful woman” category, but more in the “death is inevitable and horrible” category.
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