Edgar Allan Poe

To.

To. - meaning Summary

Longing Beyond Material Worth

Poe’s short lyric addresses a beloved through dream imagery and longing. The speaker describes how the beloved’s voice, eyes, and heart visit him in sleep, transforming his sorrowful mind into a reverent, funeral-lit vision. Waking brings a return to painful desire and recognition that true value cannot be bought: spiritual truth and emotional worth outweigh material wealth. The poem contrasts idealized inner presence with waking absence.

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The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see The wantonest singing birds, Are lips- and all thy melody Of lip-begotten words- Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrined, Then desolately fall, O God! on my funereal mind Like starlight on a pall- Thy heart- thy heart!- I wake and sigh, And sleep to dream till day Of the truth that gold can never buy- Of the baubles that it may.

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