Lyric Poem · Hope

The Happiest Day

by Edgar Allan Poe

Reading room

1The happiest day — the happiest hour

2 My seared and blighted heart hath known,

3The highest hope of pride and power,

4 I feel hath flown.

5Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween

6 But they have vanished long, alas!

7The visions of my youth have been —

8 But let them pass.

9And pride, what have I now with thee?

10 Another brow may ev'n inherit

11The venom thou hast poured on me —

12 Be still my spirit!

13The happiest day — the happiest hour

14 Mine eyes shall see — have ever seen

15The brightest glance of pride and power

16 I feel have been:

17But were that hope of pride and power

18 Now offered with the pain

19Ev'n _then_ I felt — that brightest hour

20 I would not live again:

21For on its wing was dark alloy

22 And as it fluttered — fell

23An essence — powerful to destroy

24 A soul that knew it well.

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“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.

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

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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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Lyric Poem Hope Love Sad

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