To My Mother

To My Mother - context Summary

Tribute After Virginia's Death

Composed and published in 1849, this sonnet is Poes intimate tribute to Maria Clemm, his aunt and mother-in-law, written after the death of his wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe. Dedicated to Maria, the poem acknowledges her as a sustaining maternal presence who took Virginias place in Poes affections and household. The context of bereavement and gratitude shapes the poems tone: it functions less as a general meditation than as a personal thank-you and recognition of familial devotion during a period of loss.

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Because I feel that, in the Heavens above, the angels, whispering to one another, can find, among their burning terms of love, none so devotional as that of “Mother”, therefore by that dear name I long have called you - you who are more than mother unto me, and fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you in setting my Virginia’s spirit free. My mother — my own mother, who died early, was but the mother of myself; but you are mother to the one I loved so dearly, and thus are dearer than the mother I knew by that infinity with which my wife was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

Edgar Allan Poe

To My Mother

To My Mother - context Summary