Sonnet · Poems About Mom
To My Mother
by Edgar Allan Poe · 1849
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you —
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother — my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
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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