∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
BEAUTIFUL SONNET. — We copy below a sonnet which recently appeared in the Flag of Our Union. For beauty of versification, and touching simplicity of expression, we have rarely seen the equal. It most admirably combines beauty and appropriateness of language, originality of thought and expression, and delicately worded Eulogy. If any sonnet has ever appeared, which, taken as a whole, can surpass this in all that constitutes true poetry, we have yet to see it
~~~~~~~~~~~~
BY EDGAR A. POE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Because I feel that, in the heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of ‘mother’ —
Therefore by that sweet name I long have called you —
You, who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother — my own mother — who died early —
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew;
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-like. [[soul-life]]
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Notes:
The text is identical to that printed in the Flag of Our Union, except for an error added here in the final line.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
[S:1 - OS, 1849 (microfilm)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - To My Mother [reprint]