A Valentine
For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Leda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines!
They hold a treasure.
Divine a talisman, an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure
The words, the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets, as the name is a poet's, too,
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto- Mendez Ferdinando-
Still form a synonym for Truth
Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle,
though you do the best you can do.
Edgar Allan Poe
Other Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within A Dream,
Beloved Physician, Bells,
The Divine Right Of Kings,
Elizabeth, Spirits of the Dead,
Epigram for Wall Street,
The Haunted Palace,
Romance, To One In Paradise,
The Valley of Unrest
Edgar Allan Poe Stories and Tales
Some Words With A Mummy, The Oblong Box,
The Pit And The Pendulum, Eleonora,
The Masque Of The Red Death, The Sphinx,
The Murders In The Rue Morgue,
The Purloined Letter, King Pest,
The Fall Of The House Of Usher,
The Devil In The Belfry, The Tell Tale Heart,
A Tale Of Jerusalem, The Business Man,
The Landscape Garden, Loss Of Breath,
Quotes by Edgar Allan Poe
Poetry is the rhythmical
creation of beauty in words.
Edgar Allan Poe
They who dream by day are cognizant
of many things which escape those
who dream only by night.
Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary,
while I pondered weak and weary...
Edgar Allan Poe
In one case out of a hundred a point
is excessively discussed because it
is obscure; in the ninety-nine
remaining it is obscure because it
is excessively discussed.
Edgar Allan Poe
A gentleman with a pug nose is
a contradiction in terms.
Edgar Allan Poe
All that we see or seem is but
a dream within a dream.
Edgar Allan Poe
