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.
-- THE END --
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Edgar Alan Poe: [Work] [Life] [Search]
© Stefan Gmoser
Updated: Samstag, 10-Feb-2001 13:40:27 CET
-- Anonymous, September 22, 2002
These two day deadlines are just as bad for us! To prove you CAN get
help if only you give us a little more leeway.
One of his last poems.Starts off sentimentally enough though the
angels in heaven is a common image in Poe from his earliest days, the
presiding singers of the highest art. Burning" is the fire that
typifies the greatest poetic passion. The sonnet'sconceit is that she
is dearer than his own mother he scarcely knew for being the mother of
his beloved Virginia. That also is sentimental yet is includes that
common theme of the man obsessed by his love who is more than his own
soul and life. Any number of poems cast the poet out to that ideal
love which is the REAL centerof devotion here- his wife NOT his
mother-in-law. So it is not really an exemplary poem on motherhood but
another point of the compass always centering on the poet's ideal
love. Other Poesque touches "where Death(or God) installed you".
Underneath this orderly Shakespearian sonnet of copurse is real shared
devotion and grieft that forged a relationship in the survivors always
in terms of Virginia.
-- Anonymous, September 24, 2002