From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were -- I have not seenAs others saw -- I could not bringMy passions from a common spring --From the same source I have not takenMy sorrow -- I could not awakenMy heart to joy at the same tone --And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --Then -- in my childhood -- in the dawnOf a most stormy life -- was drawnFrom ev'ry depth of good and illThe 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'dIn its autumn tint of gold --From the lightning in the skyAs 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 --
[Poe wrote this poem in the autograph album of Lucy Holmes, later Lucy Holmes Balderston. The poem was never printed during Poe's lifetime. It was first published by E. L. Didier in Scribner's Monthly for September of 1875, in the form of a facsimile. The facsimile, however, included the addition of a title and date not on the original manuscript. That title was "Alone," which has remained. Doubts about its authenticity, in part inspired by this manipulation, have since been calmed. The poem is now seen as one of Poe's most revealing works.]