Poe's Works

Silence A Sonnet There are some qualities — some incorporate thingsThat have a double life — life aptly made,The type of that twin entity which springsFrom matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.There is a two-fold Silence — sea and shore —Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,Newly with grass o’ergrown. Some solemn graces —Some human memories and tearful lore,Render him terrorless — his name's “No More.”He is the corporate Silence — dread him not!No power hath he of evil in himself;But should some urgent fate — untimely lot!Bring thee to meet ...

Sonnet “Seldom we find,” says Solomon Don Dunce,“Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet.Through all the flimsy things we see at onceAs easily as through a Naples bonnet —Trash of all trash! — how can a lady don it?Yet heavier far than your Petrarchan stuff —Owl-downy nonsense that the faintest puffTwirls into trunk-paper the while you con it.”And, veritably, Sol is right enough.The general Petrarchanities are arrantBubbles — ephemeral and so transparent —But this is, now, — you may depend upon it —Stable, opaque, immortal — all by dintOf the dear names that lie ...

Song of Triumph Who is king but Epiphanes?Say do you know?Who is God but Epiphanes?Say do you know?There is none but EpiphanesNo — there is none:So tear down the templesAnd put out the sun! Edgar Allan Poe Originally Published in Poe’s story “Epimanes” in 1833 ...

Serenade So sweet the hour — so calm the time,I feel it more than half a crimeWhen Nature sleeps and stars are mute,To mar the silence ev’n with lute.At rest on ocean's brilliant diesAn image of Elysium lies:Seven Pleiades entranced in Heaven,Form in the deep another seven:Endymion nodding from aboveSees in the sea a second love:Within the valleys dim and brown,And on the spectral mountain's crownThe wearied light is lying down:The earth, and stars, and sea, and skyAre redolent of sleep, as IAm redolent of thee and thineEnthralling love, my Adeline.But list, O list! — so soft and lowThy ...