Poems for Mothers: 'To My Mother' by Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry

To My Mother

Edgar Allan Poe (1849)

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. (This poem was actually addressed to Poe’s mother-in-law, as should be clear to anyone who reads it.)


Next page > “Mother o’ Mine” by Rudyard Kipling (1891)... Poems for Mothers collection > table of contents Back to the index > Poems by Edgar Allan Poe Profile of the author > American Romantic Edgar Allan Poe