ALONE

by Edgar Allen Poe (1829)

                    From childhood's hour I have not been

                        As others were—I have not seen

                            As others saw—I could not bring

                                My passions from a common spring—

                                    From the same source I have not taken

                                        My sorrow—I could not awaken

                                            My heart to joy at the same tone—

                                                And all I lov'd—I lov'd alone—


                                                Then—in my childhoodin the dawn

                                            Of a most stormy life—was drawn

                                        From ev'ry depth of good and ill

                                    The mystery which binds me still—

                                From the torrent, or the fountain—

                            From the red cliff of the mountain—

                        From the sun that 'round me roll'd

                    In its autumn tint of gold—

                From the lightning in the sky

            As it pass'd me flying by—

        From the thunder, and the storm—

    And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view—