Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. Killis Campbell), “Sonnet — To Science,” The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ginn and Company, 1917, pp. 104-105


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[page 104, continued:]

SONNET — SILENCE   [[v]]

There are some qualities — some incorporate things,

[[v]]

That have a double life, which thus is made

[[v]]

A type of that twin entity which springs

From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.

5

[[n]]

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,

[[n]]

Render him terrorless: his name's “No More.” [page 105:]

10

[[n]]

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 his shadow (nameless elf,

[[v]]

That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod

15

[[n]]

No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!

(1840)

 


[[Variants]]

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 104:]

Title Silence. A Sonnet (B. G.M.).

2 which thus is: life aptly (B. G. M., S.M.).

3 A: The (B. G. M., S.M.).

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 105:]

14 That haunteth: Who haunteth (B. G. M.); lone: dim (B. G. M.).

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - KCP, 1917] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Sonnet -- To Science (ed. K. Campbell, 1917)