Serenade by Edgar Allan Poe

So sweet the hour, so calm the time, 

I feel it more than half a crime, 

When Nature sleeps and stars are mute, 

To mar the silence ev'n with lute. 

At rest on ocean's brilliant dyes 

An image of Elysium lies: 

Seven Pleiades entranced in Heaven, 

Form in the deep another seven: 

Endymion nodding from above 

Sees in the sea a second love. 

Within the valleys dim and brown, 

And on the spectral mountain's crown, 

The wearied light is dying down, 

And earth, and stars, and sea, and sky 

Are redolent of sleep, as I 

Am redolent of thee and thine 

Enthralling love, my Adeline. 

But list, O list,- so soft and low 

Thy lover's voice tonight shall flow, 

That, scarce awake, thy soul shall deem 

My words the music of a dream. 

Thus, while no single sound too rude 

Upon thy slumber shall intrude,

Our thoughts, our souls- O God above! 

In every deed shall mingle, love.


Though this poem is not my own I fell in love with it the beginning of my Senior year when I was forced to memorize a poem for my speech class. I no longer have it memorized but I do always have it with me.