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TO ——
BY EDGAR A. POE.
IN youth's spring it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less,
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that tower'd around —
But when the night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the ghastly wind went by
In a dirge-like melody,
Then — ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight —
A feeling not the jewell'd mine
Could teach or bribe me to define,
Nor love — although the love were thine. [page 325:]
Death was in that poison'd wave,
And in its depth a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining —
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
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Notes:
The full title of this book is The Missionary Memorial: A Literary and Religious Souvenir.
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[S:1 - MM, 1846 - RPF] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - The Lake (Text-06)