Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “[Alone]” (Text-02), undated manuscript, about 1829


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Original

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were — I have not seen

As others saw — I could not bring

My passions from a common spring —

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow — I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone —

And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —

Then — in my childhood — in the dawn

Of a most stormy life — was drawn

From ev’ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still —

From the torrent, or the fountain —

From the red cliff of the mountain —

From the sun that ’round me roll'd

In its autumn tint of gold —

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass'd me flying by —

From the thunder, and the storm —

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view —

E. A. Poe


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Notes:

The original manuscript bears the number 55 in the upper right hand corner, as a page number within the album. The pages measure 8 inches high by 5 inches wide.

The website of the Maryland Historical Society includes a photograph of the original manuscript.

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[S:1 - MS, about 1829] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Alone (Text-02)