Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd alas, in sorrow!

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow),
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, heaven! - oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused - I looked
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out :
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.

All all expired save thee save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes

Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.

I saw but them — they were the world to me.
I saw but them - saw only them for hours
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten

Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a wo! yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!

45

How daring an ambition! yet how deep -
How fathomless a capacity for love!

But now, at length, dear Dian° sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained.
They would not go· they never yet have gone.

Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
They follow me - they lead me through the years
They are my ministers

- yet I their slave.

Their office is to illumine and enkindle

My duty, to be saved by their bright light,

And purified in their electric fire,

And sanctified in their elysian° fire.

They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),

And are far up in Heaven

the stars I kneel to

In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still two sweetly scintillant°
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!

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55

60

65

ANNABEL LEE

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea

That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought 5
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,

But we loved with a love that was more than love

I and my ANNABEL LEE

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,

Went envying her and me

Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

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15

20

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we
Of many far wiser than we

And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE:

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For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes

Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE:

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling

my darling

my life and my bride,

In the sepulchre there by the sea
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

THE BELLS

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40

I

HEAR the sledges with the bells

Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!

How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,

In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight:
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic° rhyme,

5

10

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,

What a liquid ditty floats,

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!

Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gush of euphony° voluminously wells!
How it swells!

How it dwells

On the Future! how it tells
Of the rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells -

Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,

Bells, bells, bells