The poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Chapter 51: TO ——

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About This Book

A curated volume of lyrical and narrative verse that repeatedly returns to themes of loss, mourning, and yearning for unattainable beauty. The poems rely on precise meter, inventive rhyme, and vivid gothic and dreamlike imagery to produce a haunting musicality. Selections range from intimate, tender lyrics to ornate, macabre narratives, alternating elegiac reflection with dramatic tableaux. An introductory essay and decorative illustrations frame the poems and connect their emotional intensity to the poet’s temperament and critical reception.

TO ——

The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

The wantonest singing birds,

Are lips—and all thy melody

Of lip-begotten words—

Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrined

Then desolately fall,

O God! on my funereal mind

Like starlight on a pall—

Thy heart—thy heart!—I wake and sigh,

And sleep to dream till day

Of the truth that gold can never buy—

Of the baubles that it may.