Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “To One in Paradise” (Text-09b), Saturday Museum (Philadelphia), March 4, 1843, p. 1, col. 7


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­ [page 1, column 7, continued:]

TO ONE IN PARADISE.

Thou wast that all to me, love,

For which my soul did pine —

A green isle in the sea, love, —

A fountain and a shrine

All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers

And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!

Oh, starry Hope! that didst arise

But to be overcast!

A voice from out the Future cries

“On! on!” — but o'er the Past

(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies

Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! with me

The light of Life is o'er!

No more — no more — no more

(Such language holds the solemn sea

To the sands upon the shore)

Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,

Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,

And all my nightly dreams

Are where thy dark eye glances,

And where thy footstep gleams —

In what ethereal dances

By what eternal streams.


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Notes:

This poem is quoted as part of a biographical article on Poe. (The present version of the poem is identical with the February 25, 1843 text, except for the exchange of an exclamation point for a semi-colon inthe first line of the second stanza..)

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[S:1 - PSM, 1843 (photocopy)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - To One in Paradise (Text-09b)