Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Sonnet — To My Mother” (Text-02b), Flag of Our Union (Boston, MA), vol. IV, no. 27, July 7, 1849, p. 2, col. 7


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[Written for The Flag of our Union.]

Sonnet — To My Mother.

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BY EDGAR A. POE.

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Because I feel that, in the heavens above,

The angels, whispering to one another,

Can find, among their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of ‘mother’ —

Therefore by that sweet name I long have called you —

You, who are more than mother unto me,

And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,

In setting my Virginia's spirit free.

My mother — my own mother — who died early —

Was but the mother of myself; but you

Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,

And thus are dearer than the mother I knew;

By that infinity with which my wife

Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.


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Notes:

This poem is addressed, of course, to Poe's mother-in-law and aunt, Maria Clemm.

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[S:1 - FOU, 1849 (LOC)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Sonnet — To My Mother (Text-02b)