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Lyric Poem · Love

Bridal Ballad

by Edgar Allan Poe

1The ring is on my hand,

2 And the wreath is on my brow;

3Satins and jewels grand

4Are all at my command.

5 And I am happy now.

6And my lord he loves me well;

7 But, when first he breathed his vow,

8I felt my bosom swell —

9For the words rang as a knell,

10And the voice seemed _his_ who fell

11In the battle down the dell,

12 And who is happy now.

13But he spoke to reassure me,

14 And he kissed my pallid brow,

15While a reverie came o'er me,

16And to the churchyard bore me,

17And I sighed to him before me,

18Thinking him dead D'Elormie,

19 "Oh, I am happy now!"

20And thus the words were spoken,

21 And thus the plighted vow,

22And, though my faith be broken,

23And, though my heart be broken,

24Behold the golden keys

25 That _proves_ me happy now!

26Would to God I could awaken

27 For I dream I know not how,

28And my soul is sorely shaken

29Lest an evil step be taken, —

30Lest the dead who is forsaken

31 May not be happy now.

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Quick facts

Poem
Bridal Ballad
Poet
Edgar Allan Poe
Length
31 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Love, Death & Loss, Peace

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
31 lines · 5 stanzas of 5–7 lines
Line length
Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Edgar Allan Poe1809–1849
Source record
PoetryDBBridal Ballad by edgar-allan-poe, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 951473aa4e8b1852
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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