TO MY MOTHER. BECAUSE I feel that, in the Heavens above, None so devotional as that of Mother," Therefore by that dear name I long have called youYou 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. ANNABEL LEE. It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea That a maiden there lived whom you may know And this maiden she lived with no other thought I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love I and my ANNABEL LEE With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven And this was the reason that, long ago, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling So that her highborn kinsmen came To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea. The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Yes! that was the reason (as all men know, That the wind came out of the cloud by night, But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of many far wiser than we - And neither the angels in heaven above, For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side In her, tomb by the sounding sea. THE BELLS. I. HEAR the sledges with the bells What a world of merriment their melody foretells! To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. II. Hear the mellow wedding bells What a world of happiness their harmony foretells ! To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats On the moon! Oh, from out the sounding cells, What a gush of euphony voluminously wells! Of the rapture that impels To the swinging and the ringing Of the bells, bells, bells Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! III. Hear the loud alarum bells Brazen bells! What a tale of terror, now their turbulency tells! How they scream out their affright! In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire, And a resolute endeavour By the side of the pale-faced moon. Oh, the bells, bells, bells! How they clang, and clash, and roar ! On the bosom of the palpitating air! |