Lyric Poem · Love

To

by Edgar Allan Poe

The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see

The wantonest singing birds,

Are lips — and all thy melody

Of lip-begotten words —

Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrined

Then desolately fall,

O God! on my funereal mind

Like starlight on a pall —

Thy heart — _thy_ heart! — I wake and sigh,

And sleep to dream till day

Of the truth that gold can never buy —

Of the baubles that it may.

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“To” by Edgar Allan Poe — quilloak.com/poems/to-poe

Quick facts

Poem: To
Poet: Edgar Allan Poe
Length: 12 lines
Form: Lyric Poem
Themes: Love, Dreams & Sleep, Peace

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: 12 lines · 4 stanzas of 2–4 lines
Line length: Lines run 6-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.

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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 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 02463f803cc09ea4…
Editorial handling: Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.

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Lyric Poem Love Dreams & Sleep Peace

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