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To Helen | Poems by Edgar Allan Poe · Ririro.com - Poetry

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: I saw THEE once once, only years ago. I must
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: not say how many, but not many. It was a
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: July midnight, and from out a full owed moon that,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: like thine own soul soaring, sought a precipitate pathway up
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: through the heaven, there fell a silvery, silken veil of light,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: with quietude and sultriness and slumber, upon the upturned phases
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: of a thousand roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: where no wind dared to stir unless on tiptoe. Fell
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: on the upturned faces of these roses that gave out
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: in return for the love light their odorous souls, in
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: an ecstatic death, fell on the upturned faces of these
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: roses that smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted by
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: THEE and by the poetry of thy presence. Clad in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: white upon a violet bank, I saw THEE half reclining,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: while the moon fell on the upturned faces of the roses,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: and on thine own upturned alas in sorrow. Was it
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: not fate that, on this July midnight, Was it not Fate,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: whose name is also sorrow, that bade me pause before
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: that garden gate to breathe the incense of those slumbering roses.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: No footsteps turred the hated world and slept, Save only
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: THEE and me. Oh Heaven, oh God, how my heart beats.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: In coupling these two words, Save only THEE and me.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I paused, I looked, and in an instant, all things disappeared.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Ah bear in mind this guard and was enchanted. The
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: pearly luster of the moon went out. The mossy banks
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and the meandering paths, the happy flowers and the repining
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: trees were seen no more. The very roses odors died
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: in the arms of the adoring airs. All all expired,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: save thee, Save less than thou, Save only the divine
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: light in thine eyes, Save but the soul and thine
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: uplifted eyes. I saw but them. They were the world.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: To me. I saw but them, saw only them for hours,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: saw only them, until the moon went down. What wild
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: heart history seemed to be in writtain upon those crystalline
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: celestial spheres. How dark a woe yet, how sublime a hope,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: How silently serene a sea of pride? How daring an
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: ambition yet, how deep, how fathomless a capacity for love?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: But now at length dear Dian sank from sight into
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: a western couch of thunder cloud, and thou a ghost
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: amid the entombing trees didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: They would not go. They never yet have gone, lighting
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: my lonely pathway home at night. They have not left me,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: as my hopes have since they follow me, They lead
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: me through the years. They are my ministers, yet I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: their slave. Their office is to illumine and enkindle my
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: duty to be saved by their bright light, and purified
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: in their electric fire, and sanctified in their ilesion fire.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: They fill my soul with beauty, which is hope, and
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: are far are up in heaven the stars I kneel
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: to in the sad, silent watches of my night, while
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: even in the meridian glare of day I see them still,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: two sweetly scintillant venuses, unextinguished by the sun.