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[page 34:]

THE VALLEY OF UNREST.

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Once it smiled a silent dell

Where the people did not dwell;

They had gone unto the wars,

Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,

Nightly, from their azure towers,

To keep watch above the flowers,

In the midst of which all day

The red sun-light lazily lay.

Now each visiter shall confess

The sad valley's restlessness.

Nothing there is motionless —

Nothing save the airs that brood

Over the magic solitude.

Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees

That palpitate like the chill seas

Around the misty Hebrides!

Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven

That rustle through the unquiet Heaven

Uneasily, from morn till even,

Over the violets there that lie

In myriad types of the human eye —

Over the lilies there that wave

And weep above a nameless grave!

They wave: — from out their fragrant tops

Eternal dews come down in drops.

They weep: — from off their delicate stems

Perennial tears descend in gems.


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Notes:

This version of the poem is identical to that printed in The Raven and Other Poems (1845), with no changes in words or punctuation. A minor typographical note is that it is one of the few poems in the collection that does not use larger and smaller capitals for the first word, perhaps due to the use of italics.

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