SERENADE

SERENADE

Edgar Allan Poe

So sweet the hour, so calm the time,

I feel it more than half a crime, 

When nature sleep 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 entrance in Heaven,

Form in the deep another seven:

Endymion nodding from above

Sees in the see a second live.

Within the valleys dim and brown,

And on the spectral mountains crown,

The wearied lights 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

That, scarce awake, thy soul shall deem

My words the music of a dream.

Thus, while no single sound too rude

Upon they slumber shall intrude

Our thoughts, our souls- O God above

In every deed shall mingle, love.