Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Lake” (Text-C), Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (1829), pp. 64-65


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[page 64:]

5.

THE LAKE — TO ——

1

In youth's spring it was my lot

To haunt of the wide world a spot

The which I could not love the less,

So lovely was the loneliness

Of a wild lake with black rock bound,

And the tall pines that tower'd around:

But when the night had thrown her pall

Upon that spot — as upon all,

And the black wind murmur'd by,

In a dirge of melody —

My infant spirit would awake

To the terror of the lone lake.

2

Yet that terror was not fright —

But a tremulous delight —

A feeling not the jewell'd mine

Should ever bribe me to define —

Nor Love — altho' the Love be thine: [page 65:]

3

Death was in that poison'd wave —

And, in it's [[its]] gulf a fitting grave

For him who thence could solace bring

To his lone imagining —

Whose solitary soul could make

An Eden of that dim lake.


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Notes:

None.

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[S:1 - ATMP, 1829 (fac, 1933)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - The Lake (Text-C)