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A Bite-Sized Collection of Sorta Edgy Poems ft. Edgar Allan Poe

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at NMSU chapter.

Now, I’m a bit of a melancholic person for those that know me. I’m also a big fan of poetry and not to mention I’m also tired. What does that get ya? This, a selective collection of my favorite poems, along with a poem of my own. Not many people are fans of poetry, but give it a try and you just might like it.

Any references are cited at the end.

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Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood’s hour I have not been

As others were—I have not seen

As others saw—I could not bring

My passions from a common spring—

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow—I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone—

And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—

Then—in my childhood—in the dawn

Of a most stormy life—was drawn

From ev’ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still—

From the torrent, or the fountain—

From the red cliff of the mountain—

From the sun that ’round me roll’d

In its autumn tint of gold—

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass’d me flying by—

From the thunder, and the storm—

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view—

****

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

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 wingèd 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 highborn kinsmen 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 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 her sepulchre there by the sea—

   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

****

Movement by Rukiiyah Sekka

Move through the world

Flipping through

The air

Landing on your 

feet?

Where do you

land when you’re 

Constantly falling

failing

With no end

The abyss lays below

you’re feet

But relaxed is

all you

 feel?

****

Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allan Poe

I

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

       II

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.

       III

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not 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.

       IV

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.

       V

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!

****

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Spirits of the Dead by Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48632/spirits-of-the-dead.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “‘Alone’ by Edgar Allan Poe.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46477/alone-56d2265f2667d.

A current junior at NMSU, Rukiiyah is an introvert who loves to spend her days at home with a cup of green tea,her pet rabbit Ruxia, and a novel of her choice. You can follow her on Instagram @ _ruki.ruki22_