Analysis of To Helen - 1848
Edgar Allan Poe 1809 (Boston) – 1849 (Baltimore)
I saw thee once- once only- years ago:
I must not say how many- but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturned faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe-
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death-
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.
Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd- alas, in sorrow!
Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight-
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world an slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven!- oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused- I looked-
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All- all expired save thee- save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes-
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them- they were the world to me!
I saw but them- saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition; yet how deep-
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;
They would not go- they never yet have gone;
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;
They follow me- they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers- yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle-
My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
And are far up in Heaven- the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still- two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!
Scheme | abcxdefxdaGexGhxxxga eaxgxxxxxh cxijxxkkbjxblmxxx exixxexlxxeffmxexcd |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1111110101 11111101110 11011011 01111111110 1001011110 11010010111 1101010 0101101010 10110101010 1111110111 1101101110 1110011011 11001010101 1101101110 1101011010 110101001110 11010101001 1111010101 1101101010 0111101010 111111111 11111111010 1111011101 110011110010 111010111 11010111011 1111010111 1101011111 001101101 11011101010 0101010111 0110001001 010100011 01110101010 1001100101 1101111111 1100011011 1101011001 1111100111 11111101110 1101010111 1111001111 011100101 1101110101 1100010111 1101010111 110010011 1111110111 0101011101 010101011 1101101101 1111110111 101101111 1111111111 1101111101 1111001111 11011101 1101111111 0100101010 0101110 1111110111 011101001111 0011010111 110000100111 11111101 11101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,842 |
Words | 526 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 20, 10, 17, 19 |
Lines Amount | 66 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 548 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 130 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 28, 2023
- 2:39 min read
- 178 Views
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"To Helen - 1848" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/8482/to-helen---1848>.
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