Edgar Allan Poe

To One In Paradise

Summary

This poetic work expresses deep longing and loss through vivid imagery and emotional language. It reflects on a love that was intensely cherished, symbolized by a lush, idyllic isle filled with beauty and personal meaning. The speaker laments a lost hope, characterized by the transient nature of dreams and aspirations that were too radiant to endure. The piece transitions into a sorrowful acceptance of this loss, equating it to the end of life's brightness, where the hope of renewal or upliftment is as futile as a struck tree blooming again or an injured eagle soaring. The speaker's existence becomes a series of trances and dreams, eternally haunted by the presence of the beloved, conveyed through otherworldly imagery of dark eyes and ethereal dances, suggesting an everlasting connection to what has been lost.

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Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine—
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
“On! on!”—but o’er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! with me
The light of Life is o’er!
No more—no more—no more—
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams—
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.

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