Wednesday, January 13, 2010

To One In Paradise

Sad but lovely just the same…

Thou wast all that to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
"On! on!"- but o'er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!

For, alas! alas! me
The light of Life is o'er!
"No more- no more- no more-"
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree
Or the stricken eagle soar!

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy grey eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams-
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.
 

-- Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)


 


If I could see the sky above
And my mind could be set free
As wild white horses reached the shore
I'd stand alone and oversee


And if the bush before me burns
Should I turn my eyes away
And still the voices I can hear
As clear to me as light of day


I believed in my dreams
Nothing could change my mind
Now I know what they mean
How could I be so blind


Cold sands of time
(Winds that blow as cold as ice
Sounds that come in the night)
Shall hide what is left on me
(Come from Paradise)


I've been through times when no one cared
(Words that were mine)
I've seen clouds in empty skies
When one kind word meant more to me
(Shall last as a memory)
Than all the love in Paradise


I believed in my dreams
Nothing could change my mind
Till I found what they mean
Nothing can save me now


-- Alan Parsons, Eric Woolfson (1945-2009)

2 comments:

Susie Hemingway said...

Wonderful, wonderful, no more to say.
All the best Walt

Karen Brook said...

OH! The Poe! How elegant, how divine, how exquisite. Soothed my spirit and even helped my headache. Really enjoyed the Alan Parsons Project vid and Parsons/Woolfson poem and music, but...Oh...the Poe. Went back and read that again. It's a total keeper. Thank you for posting this wonderful slice of sheer beauty!