El Dorado by Edgar Allan Poe

El Dorado

By Edgar Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,

   A gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

   Had journeyed long,

   Singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

–

   But he grew old—

   This knight so bold—

And o’er his heart a shadow—

   Fell as he found

   No spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

–

   And, as his strength

   Failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow—

   ‘Shadow,’ said he,

   ‘Where can it be—

This land of Eldorado?’

–

   ‘Over the Mountains

   Of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

   Ride, boldly ride,’

   The shade replied,—

‘If you seek for Eldorado!’

Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

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.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Santa Maria!

by Edgar Allan Poe

(From Morella)

Sancta Maria! turn thine eyes –

Upon the sinner’s sacrifice,

Of fervent prayer and humble love,

From thy holy throne above.

–

At morn – at noon – at twilight dim –

Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!

In joy and wo – in good and ill –

Mother of God, be with me still!

–

When the Hours flew brightly by,

And not a cloud obscured the sky,

My soul, lest it should truant be,

Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;

–

Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast

Darkly my Present and my Past,

Let my Future radiant shine

With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!!!

Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law. – Boethius, 6^th century philosopher

To be fond of dancing was a certain step towards falling in love. – Jane Austen, English novelist

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. – George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), English novelist

‘Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all. – Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet

We loved with a love that was more than love. – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. – Emily Bronte

Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other. – Euripides, Greek playwright

Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

Who so loves believes the impossible. – Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet

First love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity. – George Bernard Shaw

There is only one happiness in life,

To love and to be loved. – George Sand (Aurore Lucile Dupin), French novelist

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end. – Germaine de Stael, French novelist

Love is love’s reward. – John Dryden

Sancta Maria!

by Edgar Allan Poe

(From Morella)

Sancta Maria! turn thine eyes –

Upon the sinner’s sacrifice,

Of fervent prayer and humble love,

From thy holy throne above.

–

At morn – at noon – at twilight dim –

Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!

In joy and wo – in good and ill –

Mother of God, be with me still!

–

When the Hours flew brightly by,

And not a cloud obscured the sky,

My soul, lest it should truant be,

Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;

–

Now, when storms of Fate o’ercast

Darkly my Present and my Past,

Let my Future radiant shine

With sweet hopes of thee and thine!

Quotable Quotes #9

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest. – Johann Goethe, German poet

And in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. – Abraham Lincoln, 16^th U.S. President

I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat. – Edgar Allan Poe

Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true! – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Scenery is fine – but human nature is finer. – John Keats

Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart, and cannot make a good soup. – Ludwig van Beethoven

They never fail who die in a great cause. – Lord Byron

Forgotten is forgiven. – F. Scott Fitzgerald

A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. – Jane Austen, English novelist

Be courteous with all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. – George Washington

Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than others, but only those who have greater designs. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent. – Buddha

Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life. – Oscar Wilde

Whom the gods love dies young. – Menander, Greek dramatist

It is never too late to be what you might have been. – George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live. – Henry David Thoreau

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. – Mark Twain