Annabelle Lee...

[insideShiraz]

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
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
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
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went on envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

 

[SweetCherry]

*applause*

One of my favorite works of Poe. Tho I think I like 'The Telltale Heart' best. Thanx for posting that!

 

[Samuari]

Annabel Lee
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

Edgar Allan Poe

Some of the most beautiful lines of romance in the language. Thanks for bringing it to mind.

 

[CreamyLady]

I have always loved that poem.

 

[LordMagicMan]

so do we only have poe fans on the boards? wheres the shakespeare crowd? they seem to pop up every where

 

[Madame Pandora]

Not that anyone asked...

Naturally, I'll always be faithful to Oscar, but Poe occupies a large share of the remainder of my poet's soul.

While I like Annabel as well, my favorite romantic Poe poem is "To One in Paradise." The last stanza leaves me utterly undone

To One in Paradise
by: Edgar Allen Poe

Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"- but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o'er!
"No more- no more- no more-"
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.

 

[Samuari]

MP, I never wouold have guessed! That is somewhere in the top 10, definatly. Lord Magic, if you stick arround you will find most us paying the Bard of Avon his dues, but while we are talking about romantic poets, we can't foget the two Brownings, and Roy Croft who wrote my personal fvorite I Love You:


I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.

by Roy Croft

 

[SpecialK]

Roy Croft! Wow! I knew parts of that poem and loved it, but I never knew who it was by. Wherever I learned it from the poet was listed as anonymous.

Personally, I love Chaucer.

To Rosemounde

Madame, ye ben of al beautè shryne
As fer as cercled is the mappemounde;
For as the cristal glorious ye shyne,
And lyke ruby ben your chekes rounde.
Therwith ye ben so mery and so jocounde,
That at a revel whan that I see you daunce,
It is an oynement unto my wounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

For thogh I wepe of teres ful a tyne,
Yet may that wo myn herte nat confounde;
Your seemly voys that ye so smal out-twyne
Maketh my thoght in Ioye and blis habounde.
So curteisly I go, with lovë bounde,
That to my-self I sey, in my penaunce,
Suffyseth me to love you, Rosemounde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.

Nas never pyk walwed in galauntyne
As I in love am walwed and y-wounde;
For which ful ofte I of my-self divyne
That I am trewe Tristam the secounde.
My love may not refreyd be nor afounde;
I brenne ay in an amorous plesaunce.
Do what you list, I wil your thral be founde,
Thogh ye to me ne do no daliaunce.


That man was brillian!

K

 

[Samuari]

Thankyou Kay

When I first read Rosemounde it was in the context of looking at the evelution of Engalish, paying at attention to the words alone and not realy focusing on the content. So, for thirty years I'd never considered Chaucer a romantic, untill now. Thankyou for teaching this old dog a new trick,

 

[Cheyenne]

Personally, I love Chaucer.

Yech! From someone who had to memorize the Prologue to the Cantebury (sp?)Tales 27 years ago in a high school English class, I can tell you I've hated Chaucer ever since. I found his grave in a cathedral in London a couple years ago and teased that I wanted to spit on it for revenge.

 

[Ally C]

I'm a philistine ...

... when it comes to poetry I'm afraid. Having read the offerings on this thread it seems like several 'prophets' are not without honour, save in their homeland. [or however the Biblical saying goes]

 

[Samuari]

Personally, I love Chaucer.

Yech! From someone who had to memorize the Prologue to the Cantebury (sp?)Tales 27 years ago in a high school English class, I can tell you I've hated Chaucer ever since. I found his grave in a cathedral in London a couple years ago and teased that I wanted to spit on it for revenge.

Well, its ok, happens in the best of families.

 

[Madame Pandora]

Love

Few people think of Melville when they think of romance poetry. But...here's another of my faves. Not so much about the romance between lovers as the romance we hold for those departed from us, whom we loved and did not express our hearts to.

Monody
By: Herman Melville

To have known him, to have loved him
After loneness long;
And then to be estranged in life,
And neither in the wrong;
And now for death to set his seal--
Ease me, a little ease, my song!

By wintry hills his hermit-mound
The sheeted snow-drifts drape,
And houseless there the snow-bird flits
Beneath the fir-trees' crape:
Glazed now with ice the cloistral vine
That hid the shyest grape.

 

[Samuari]

MP that truly is beautiful, and who woulda thunk it? Melville! I'm gonna sit and wonder.