Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Sonnet — To Zante” (Text-02), Southern Literary Messenger, January 1837, 3:32, col. 2


∞∞∞∞∞∞∞


[page 32, column 2, continued:]

SONNET. TO ZANTE.

BY E. A. POE.

Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers

Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take,

How many memories of what radiant hours

At sight of thee and thine at once awake!

How many scenes of what departed bliss!

How many thoughts of what entombed hopes!

How many visions of a maiden that is

No more — no more upon thy verdant slopes!

No more! — alas, that magical sad sound

Transforming all! Thy charms shall please no more

Thy memory no more! Accursed ground

Henceforth I hold thy flower-enamelled shore,

O, hyacinthine isle! O, purple Zante!

Isola d’oro! Fior di Levante!


∞∞∞∞∞∞∞


Notes:

“Isola d’oro!” (Italian for “island of gold”) and “Fior di Levante” (Italian for “flower of the Levant”) are also used in Poe's poem “Al Aaraaf.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

[S:2 -SLM, 1837] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Sonnet — To Zante (Text-02)