Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. Killis Campbell), “Serenade,” The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ginn and Company, 1917 [[added to second edition, 1925], p. 137


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[page 137:]

SERENADE

So sweet the hour — so calm the time,

I feel it more than half a crime

When Nature sleeps and stars are mute,

To mar the silence ev’n with lute.

5

[[v]]

At rest on ocean's brilliant dyes

An image of Elysium lies:

Seven Pleiades entranced in Heaven,

Form in the deep another seven:

Endymion nodding from above

10

Sees in the sea a second love:

Within the valleys dim and brown,

And on the spectral mountain's crown

[[v]]

The wearied light is dying down:

The earth, and stars, and sea, and sky

15

Are redolent of sleep, as I

Am redolent of thee and thine

Enthralling love, my Adeline.

But list, O list! — so soft and low

Thy lover's voice to night shall flow

20

That, scarce awake, thy soul shall deem

My words the music of a dream.

Thus, while no single sound too rude,

Upon thy slumber shall intrude,

Our thoughts, our souls — O God above!

25

In every deed shall mingle, love.

 


[[Variants]]

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 137:]

5 dyes: dies (B. S. V.).

13 dying: lying (B. S. V.).

 


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Notes:

Campbell added this poem to the second edition of his edition, which is not clearly identified as such but was apparently printed in 1925.

 

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