Sonnet · Poems About Mom
To My Mother
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
1Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
2 The angels, whispering to one another,
3Can find, among their burning terms of love,
4 None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
5Therefore by that dear name I long have called you —
6 You who are more than mother unto me,
7And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
8 In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
9My mother — my own mother, who died early,
10 Was but the mother of myself; but you
11Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
12 And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
13By that infinity with which my wife
14 Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“To My Mother” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/to-my-mother
Quick facts
- Poem
- To My Mother
- Poet
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Published
- 1849
- Length
- 14 lines
- Form
- Sonnet
- Themes
- Poems About Mom, Family, 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
- 14 lines · one 14-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 10-11 syllables (median 11). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a sonnet, 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
- PoetryDBTo My Mother by edgar-allan-poe, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1849
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 6c0d725842a8b1a9…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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