Lyric Poem · Nature
To Helen
1I saw thee once — once only — years ago:
2I must not say _how_ many — but _not_ many.
3It was a July midnight; and from out
4A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
5Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
6There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
7With quietude, and sultriness and slumber,
8Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
9Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
10Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe —
11Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
12That gave out, in return for the love-light,
13Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death —
14Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
15That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
16By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.
17Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
18I saw thee half-reclining; while the moon
19Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
20And on thine own, upturn'd — alas, in sorrow!
21Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight —
22Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow),
23That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
24To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
25No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
26Save only thee and me — (O Heaven! — O God!
27How my heart beats in coupling those two words!) —
28Save only thee and me. I paused — I looked —
29And in an instant all things disappeared.
30(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
31The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
32The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
33The happy flowers and the repining trees,
34Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
35Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
36All — all expired save thee — save less than thou:
37Save only the divine light in thine eyes —
38Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
39I saw but them — they were the world to me.
40I saw but them — saw only them for hours —
41Saw only them until the moon went down.
42What wild heart-histories seemed to lie unwritten
43Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
44How dark a woe! yet how sublime a hope!
45How silently serene a sea of pride!
46How daring an ambition! yet how deep —
47How fathomless a capacity for love!
48But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
49Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
50And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
51Didst glide away. _Only thine eyes remained._
52They _would not_ go — they never yet have gone.
53Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
54_They_ have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
55They follow me — they lead me through the years.
56They are my ministers — yet I their slave.
57Their office is to illumine and enkindle —
58My duty, _to be saved_ by their bright light,
59And purified in their electric fire,
60And sanctified in their elysian fire.
61They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
62And are far up in Heaven — the stars I kneel to
63In the sad, silent watches of my night;
64While even in the meridian glare of day
65I see them still — two sweetly scintillant
66Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“To Helen” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/to-helen
Quick facts
- Poem
- To Helen
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Length
- 66 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Nature, Peace, Love
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
- 66 lines · 5 stanzas of 4–27 lines
- Line length
- Lines run 10-12 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
- Refrain
- “Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses”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
- PoetryDBTo Helen 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 4cf08c36bf09951b…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.