Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Bridal Ballad” (reprint), The Works of the Late Edgar Allan PoeVol II: Poems & Miscellanies (1850), 2:52-53


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[page 52:]

BRIDAL BALLAD.

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THE ring is on my hand,

And the wreath is on my brow;

Satins and jewels grand

Are all at my command,

And I am happy now.

And my lord he loves me well;

But, when first he breathed his vow,

I felt my bosom swell —

For the words rang as a knell,

And the voice seemed his who fell

In the battle down the dell,

And who is happy now.

But he spoke to re-assure me,

And he kissed my pallid brow,

While a reverie came o’re me,

And to the church-yard bore me,

And I sighed to him before me,

Thinking him dead D’Elormie,

“Oh, I am happy now!”

And thus the words were spoken,

And this the plighted vow,

And, though my faith be broken,

And, though my heart be broken, [page 53:]

Behold the golden token

That proves me happy now!

Would God I could awaken!

For I dream I know not how,

And my soul is sorely shaken

Lest an evil step be taken, —

Lest the dead who is forsaken

May not be happy now.


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Notes:

It has been noted that this is a great rarity in Poe's works, for the speaker is a woman. Readers of this poem should also refer to Poe's earlier “Song.”

Griswold's version of the text is vitually identical to that published in The Raven and Other Poems (1845).

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[S:1 - WORKS, 1850] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Bridal Ballad (reprint)