Classic and Contemporary Poetry
FOR ANNIE, by EDGAR ALLAN POE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thank heaven! The crisis - / the danger is past Last Line: Of the eyes of my annie. Variant Title(s): Convalescence Subject(s): Death; Love; Dead, The | ||||||||
Thank Heaven! The crisis, -- The danger is past, And the lingering illness Is over at last, -- And the fever called "Living" Is conquered at last. Sadly, I know I am shorn of my strength, And no muscle I move As I lie at full length, -- But no matter! -- I feel I am better at length. And I rest so composedly Now, in my bed, That any beholder Might fancy me dead, -- Might start at beholding me, Thinking me dead. The moaning and groaning, The sighing and sobbing, Are quieted now, With that horrible throbbing At heart, -- ah, that horrible, Horrible throbbing! The sickness, the nausea, The pitiless pain, Have ceased, with the fever That maddened my brain, -- With the fever called "Living" That burned in my brain. And O, of all tortures That torture the worst Has abated, -- the terrible Torture of thrist For the naphthaline river Of Passion accurst! I have drunk of a water That quenches all thirst, Of a water that flows, With a lullaby sound, From a spring but a very few Feet under ground, -- From a cavern not very far Down under ground. And ah! let it never Be foolishly said That my room it is gloomy And narrow my bed; For man never slept In a different bed, -- And, to sleep you must slumber In just such a bed. My tantalized spirit Here blandly reposes, Forgetting, or never Regretting, its roses, -- Its old agitations Of myrtles and roses: For now, while so quietly Lying, it fancies A holier odor About it, of pansies, -- A rosemary odor, Commingled with pansies, With rue and beautiful Puritan pansies. And so it lies happily, Bathing in many A dream of the truth And the beauty of Annie, -- Drowned in a bath Of the tresses of Annie. She tenderly kissed me, She fondly caressed, And then I fell gently To sleep on her breast, -- Deeply to sleep From the heaven of her breast. When the light was extinguished, She covered me warm, And she prayed to the angels To keep me from harm, -- To the queen of the angels To shield me from harm. And I lie so composedly Now in my bed, (Knowing her love,) That you fancy me dead; -- And I rest so contentedly Now in my bed, (With her love at my breast,) That you fancy me dead, -- That you shudder to look at me, Thinking me dead: But my heart it is brighter Than all of the many Stars in the sky; For it sparkles with Annie, -- It glows with the light Of the love of my Annie, With the thought of the light Of the eyes of my Annie. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A FRIEND KILLED IN THE WAR by ANTHONY HECHT FOR JAMES MERRILL: AN ADIEU by ANTHONY HECHT TARANTULA: OR THE DANCE OF DEATH by ANTHONY HECHT CHAMPS D?ÇÖHONNEUR by ERNEST HEMINGWAY NOTE TO REALITY by TONY HOAGLAND |
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