In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide earth a spot
The which I could not love the less
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound, And the tall pines that tower’d around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by Murmuring in melody
Then— ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight
A feeling not the jewelled mine
Could teach or bribe me to define
Nor love although the love were thine.
Death was in that poisonous wave, And in its gulf a fitting grave
For him who thence could solace bring
To his lone imagining
Whose solitary soul could make
An Eden of that dim lake.
Edgar Allen Poe
1827
Authors note:
My personal favourite poem. A perfect example of Gothic style; the dark but also strangely beautiful.