Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “To M. L. S——” (B), Home Journal (New York), March 13, 1847, p. 4, col. 1


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[page 4, top of column 1:]

[THE following seems said over a hand clasped in the speaker's two. It is by Edgar A. Poe, and is evidently the pouring out of a very deep feeling of gratitude.]

TO M. L. S——.

OF all who hail thy presence as the morning —

Of all to whom thine absence is the night —

The blotting utterly from out high heaven

The sacred sun — of all who, weeping, bless thee

Hourly for hope — for life — ah! above all,

For the resurrection of deep-buried faith

In Truth — in Virtue — in Humanity —

Of all who, on Despair's unhallowed bed

Lying down to die, have suddenly arisen

At thy soft-murmured words, ‘Let there be light!’

At the soft-murmured words that were fulfilled

In the seraphic glancing of thine eyes —

Of all who owe thee most — whose gratitude

Nearest resembles worship — oh, remember

The truest — the most fervently devoted,

And think that these weak lines are written by him —

By him who, as he pens them, thrills to think

His spirit is communing with an angel's.

E. A. P.


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Notes:

“Mrs. M. L. S——” was Mrs. Marie Louise Shew, Poe's friend and Virginia's nurse.


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[S:1 - HJ, 1847] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - To M. L. S—— (B)