Every week we are doing a poetry discussion. Right now we are only getting about one response a week, but lots of people are lookin’ at the page. Jump in guys. Let’s talk about this poem! Just say what you think, or make an observation. We are not looking for anything spectacular, but a little participation is really all we are hoping for. Read the poem leave your comment below, and we’ll all talk about ti.
A Valentine
by Edgar Allan Poe
For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Lœda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines! — they hold a treasure
Divine — a talisman — an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure —
The words — the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets — as the name is a poet’s, too.
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto — Mendez Ferdinando —
Still form a synonym for Truth. — Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.
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Yes, Virginia (Clemm Poe), there is another woman.
Search narrowly the lines! — they hold a treasure…this is a great line. I think, even though he tends to be saying things others have said, no one can say it like Poe. Tim: very funny!
It’s interesting to read something that he just tossed off, almost a parlor game (acrostics were a far more common device then than now), and still see all the musicality and inventiveness typical of his more serious finished pieces. And none of the angst and melancholy. It’s very revealing.