A VALENTINE.1

Το

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.

1 The MS. in the possession of Mrs. W. M. Griswold, dated "Valentine's Eve, 1848," differs only in punctuation from the Union Magazine text here given. An earlier form will be found in the Notes. — ED.

TO MY MOTHER.

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 "6 Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called
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.

you

ANNABEL LEE.

Ir 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 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 the sepulchre there by the sea —

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

THE BELLS.

1.

HEAR the sledges with the bells
Silver bells!

What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!

While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens, seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;

Keeping time, time, time,

In a sort of Runic rhyme,

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-

From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

II.

Hear the mellow wedding bells
Golden bells!

What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight!
From the molten-golden notes,
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats

To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!