Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Song” (reprint), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan PoeVol II: Poems & Miscellanies (1850), 2:109


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[page 110:]

SONG.

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I SAW thee on thy bridal day —

When a burning blush came o'er thee,

Though happiness around thee lay,

The world all love before thee:

And in thine eye a kindling light

(Whatever it might be)

Was all on Earth my aching sight

   Of Loveliness could see.

That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame —

As such it well may pass —

Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame

In the breast of him, alas!

Who saw thee on that bridal day,

When that deep blush would come o'er thee,

Though happiness around thee lay,

The world all love before thee.


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Notes:

It has been suggested that this poem may refer to Elmira Royster. She was Poe's childhood sweetheart, but as her parents disapproved of the match, they arranged for her to marry the much older and very wealthy Alexander Barret Shelton.

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[S:1 - WORKS, 1850] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Song (reprint)