Lyric Poem · Love

Song

by Edgar Allan Poe

Reading room

1I saw thee on thy bridal day —

2 When a burning blush came o'er thee,

3Though happiness around thee lay,

4 The world all love before thee:

5And in thine eye a kindling light

6 (Whatever it might be)

7Was all on Earth my aching sight

8 Of Loveliness could see.

9That blush, perhaps, was maiden shame —

10 As such it well may pass —

11Though its glow hath raised a fiercer flame

12 In the breast of him, alas!

13Who saw thee on that bridal day,

14 When that deep blush _would_ come o'er thee,

15Though happiness around thee lay,

16 The world all love before thee.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Tip: click any line number to copy a ready-made citation for that line.

“Song” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/song-poe

Quick facts

Poem: Song
Poet: Edgar Allan Poe
Length: 16 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Sad

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: 16 lines · 4 quatrains
End rhyme: ABAB in every stanza — alternate rhyme.
Line length: Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Refrains: “Though happiness around thee lay,”“The world all love before thee:”“The world all love before thee.”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.

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.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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: PoetryDBSong 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 185653ab807dca91…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policy Report a text or rights issue

Lyric Poem Love Sad

Keep reading

She Walks in Beauty

Lord Byron · 1814

She walks in beauty, like the nightOf cloudless climes and starry skies;And all that's best of dark and bright

18 lines · lyric

Love's Philosophy

Percy Bysshe Shelley · 1819

The fountains mingle with the riverAnd the rivers with the ocean,The winds of heaven mix for ever

16 lines · lyric

When You Are Old

W. B. Yeats · 1893

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

12 lines · lyric

More love poems →