Lyric Poem · Hope
The Happiest Day
The happiest day — the happiest hour
My seared and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.
Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween
But they have vanished long, alas!
The visions of my youth have been —
But let them pass.
And pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may ev'n inherit
The venom thou hast poured on me —
Be still my spirit!
The happiest day — the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see — have ever seen
The brightest glance of pride and power
I feel have been:
But were that hope of pride and power
Now offered with the pain
Ev'n _then_ I felt — that brightest hour
I would not live again:
For on its wing was dark alloy
And as it fluttered — fell
An essence — powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“The Happiest Day” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/the-happiest-day
Quick facts
- Poem
- The Happiest Day
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Length
- 24 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Hope, 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
- 24 lines · 6 quatrains
- Refrain
- “The happiest day — the happiest hour”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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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
- PoetryDBThe Happiest Day 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 fec81de8bf951b1b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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