Edgar Allan Poe
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! 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 gray eye glances
And where thy footsteps gleams --
In what ethereal dances
By what eternal streams