New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-05-05
POE.

ansas read at ne Dedication Of the Ac,Ors Monument 70
Edgar Allan Poe. Metropolitan Museum Of Art May 1880
Angel OF Grief thy spectral passage winging
Above black waves and under moonless skies,
Where nevermore is heard the voice OF singing
Nor any light e'er falls from Beautys eyes,
Now wave thy sable pinion where he Hes
Whom to destroy thy fancy did create
And thine the blight that cursed his human state
Aud lett him oceantost, forlorn, ana des9iale'
Man lives not as he would. but a. he musti
Deep in his soul the current OF his doom
Runs darkly that this clod of fevered dust
Desiring heaven, and drifting to tomb.
WantOns in revelry, or droOps III sioOm'
Exults in action, falters in defeat
Zen thy spirit doth its life illume,
Making its blood torrent nerce anu meet, ,,.o.,
or as stanan pool where death and darkness meet
Thou did'st create this being all OF fire,
But twas not all from heaven; the grosser name
Glowed with the tner,-till his mad desire
Revelled in wild delights, conteInnlsg shame
And staining the white crest OF noble fame:
Yet all the while thy spirit fed his heart
With widering dreams aud hopes; I'll he became
A soul of thy dark strain, aud dwelt apart
The visionary child OF genius ana OF art
From earliest youth his spirit kept its throne
BY the seas Inarge, or on tue mountain height,
Or In the forest deeps. or meadow lOne' 49,,
Where the long shadows fail, as Genes the night
And spectral shapes CLEAN on the star led sight
And vanish with low signs: Tile daIkllng caves
That line the murm'rOus shore were his delight,
Where the defeated bll1ow cnafes and raves, 49,
V.
BY night he roamed along the haunted shore,
And on the vacant summit OF the hills
Held converse with the vast while evermore
The awful mystery with which Nature thiills-
Whispering The poets heart. ana thence distils
The essence OF her beauty,-wrapt his soul, NJ
Buoyant and glorious, with such power as mis-
The dread e. paDse where sky aud ocean roll,
thought neasureess supreme aud feeling past control
Among the haunts OF men a wanderer still,
ILeda dfskv p4fb "A II
We're things by him uHfelt, TO hun unknown
An empty laughter or an Idle moan
And they that SAW him passed hin co!dly by,
And thus lac rOyed ms shadowy world alOne,-
A world OF haunting shapes and phanLasy,
And life dream that Onged yet dreaded more TO de
This is the bitter close that, in their flow,
The stern years rayage FROM u.s. one by one,
Each hope that satellites lie OF woe,
All that is fair and bright beneath the sun,
And that sweet faith with which our days begun
Till not one glimnering ray from heavenly spheres
Ger longings thwarted and hlgh aims undone,
And quenched the spring OF JOY and dried the tount OF
tears.
Close close around us draws the prison shade
And ever closer, as our moments glide
The iron web OF doom ourselves have made,
by lealty to the power which doth reside
Within ourselves, not once TO be denied,
Nor curbed nor conquered! Action doth but make
A past TO be remembered aud the PRIDE
OF mightiest will that would lie guidance take
Must ike the lraiest heart at last repne and break
TX.
This fate was his-Lut not Ia darkness all
Ran the wild current OF his days and deeds;
Still on the ruined fame the moonlight falls,
Ana stu the radiant dawn the nlsnt succeed leeds;
Ard thus the hrst to love ana to be blest
with that great glory Of ali human needs
Which, whether crowned martyred, still is best
The angel regnant once withln tile human breast.
To love and to be loved--to have the bliss
The perfect heaven Of one responsive soul;
tn feel tlfObDlug
When thought ana feeling, lOOsed from all control,
Like torrents 10 the sea tunultuOus roll,
And lie becomes all r@pture-this he knew
Her nerces forth, the many or the few,
No flower is left TO bloom that eer In Eden grew.
He lOved-he lost-and from that fatal hour
His soul was haunted by one heavenly face;
One sacred name had evernOre the power
To shed glory upon every place
| And gid each moment VITA deathless grace =
His heart had worshipped aud hls quest HAD found,
And now, though cold and empty his embrace,
| His lonely footsteps fell on holy ground,
With gel shapes and tones forever circng round.
| The dying light of sunset ; The low sigh
or Whispering winds that str the fallen leaves;
| The my site sea, that not exuls nor grieves;
| The rosy magic OF the dawn that weaves
| It's web OF beauty, fading while IL glows-
Ali that they mean the halIow ed heart receives.
| Sealed with the sacrament that grief bestows,
| And all that Nature has OF tender mystery knows
| Kill
| Angel OF Sorrow though thy fevered hand
| Drop the stricken heart "A cross Of fire;
Though gloom and signs aud tears, grisy band,
| Watch round his midnight couch till hope xpire
Though faith give DER, and heavenly patience tire,
| And Taught remain but bitter, bleak despair,
Yet dost thou lift thy hapless victim higher!-
With nothing left 10 lOse he all may dare
Who scorns the dart OF death heeds not the frown
carel
XIV.
His o'erfraught bosom and his haunted brain
Gave out their music ana then ceased 10 be-
A strange, "A weird, a melancholy strain,
Like the low moaning OF the distant seal
And when death barshly SGT his spirit FREQ
From frenZied days ana penury ana blight,
At least twas tender mercy's kind Decree
Shrniug his name IN memOry's living light
With thoughts tDat GID the day and charm the lingerin
night
XIV.
He the voice of beauty and OF voc,
Passion and mystery and the dread unknown;
Pure as the mountains Of perpetual snow,