Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. J. A. Harrison), “Spirits of the Dead,” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan PoeVol. VII: Poems (1902), 7:13-14


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[page 13:]

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD.

I.

THY soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tomb-stone —

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy:

II.

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness — for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

In life before thee are again

In death around thee — and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

III.

The night — tho’ clear — shall frown —

And the stars shall look not down,

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given —

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever. [page 14:]

IV.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish —

Now are visions ne’er to vanish —

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more — like dew-drop from the grass.

V.

The breeze — the breath of God — is still —

And the mist upon the hill

Shadowy — shadowy — yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token —

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries! —


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Notes:

None.


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[S:0 - JAH07, 1902] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions - The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe (J. A. Harrison) (Spirits of the Dead)