National Poetry Month #28

My man Poe deserves one more look. I can't help myself. I really think reading this guy helped shape who I am today. Through Poe I got my first taste a lot of dark ideas that would become the foundation of what entertains me even today. That gothic sense of dread and longing, themes of man facing his mortality, shades of the supernatural... It truly is a wonder that it took me more than 30 years to really appreciate Lovecraft, considering the huge influence Poe was on his works.

Take this work, for example:

SPIRITS OF THE DEAD
by Edgar Allan Poe

Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!