A Moon Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

I saw thee once- once only- years ago:
I must not say how many- but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that like thine own soul soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness and slumber,
Upon the upturn'd faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the lovelight,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death
Fell on the upturned faces of these roses
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
by thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.
Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half-reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd- alas, in sorrow!
Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight
Was it not Fate (whose name is also Sorrow),
That bade me pause before that gardengate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world all slept,
Save only thee and me. I paused I looked
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)
The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses'odours
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All, all expired save thee- save less than thou:
Save only the devine light in thine eyes.
I saw but them- they were the world to me.
I saw but them- saw only them for hours
Saw only them till the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to lie enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe! yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How adoring an ambition! yet how deep
How fathomless a capacity for love!
But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into the western couch of a thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid entombing trees
Didst glide away. only thine eyes Remained.
They would not go- they never yet have gone.
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since.
They follow me, they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers yet I their slave.
Their office is to illuminate and enkindle
My duty, to be saved by their bright light
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope.)
And are far up in Heaven, the stars I kneel to
In the sad, slient watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still- two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!