To M‑‑

O! I care not that my earthly lot
      Hath little of Earth in it,
That years of love have been forgot
      In the fever of a minute:

I heed not that the desolate
      Are happier, sweet, than I,
But that you meddle with my fate
      Who am a passerby.

It is not that my founts of bliss
      Are gushing -- strange! with tears --
Or that the thrill of a single kiss
      Hath palsied many years --

'Tis not that the flowers of twenty springs
      Which have wither'd as they rose
Lie dead on my heart-strings
      With the weight of an age of snows.

Not that the grass -- O! may it thrive!
      On my grave is growing or grown-
But that, while I am dead yet alive
      I cannot be, lady, alone.

First published in the Southern Literary Messenger, July 1835; revised and retitled "To One Departed" and printed in Graham's Magazine, March 1842.

Authorship

by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) , "To M--", 1835

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

[ None yet in the database ]

by Albert Huybrechts (1899-1938) , "Je ne prends point garde", 1928 [soprano or mezzo-soprano and piano], from Trois poèmes d'Edgar Poe, no. 2.

ENG English (Edgar Allan Poe) , "To F--", 1845, published 1845 [an adaptation]

Text added to the website: 2011-03-11.

Notes about green, red, and white dots

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