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The Happiest Day

Edgar Allan Poe·1809–1849
Lines:24Movement:Romanticism
The happiest day--the happiest hour My seared and blighted heart hath known,The highest hope of pride and power, I feel hath flown. Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween But they have vanished long, alas!The visions of my youth have been-- But let them pass. And pride, what have I now with thee? Another brow may ev'n inheritThe venom thou hast poured on me-- Be still my spirit! The happiest day--the happiest hour Mine eyes shall see--have ever seenThe brightest glance of pride and power I feel have been: But were that hope of pride and power Now offered with the painEv'n _then_ I felt--that brightest hour I would not live again: For on its wing was dark alloy And as it fluttered--fellAn essence--powerful to destroy A soul that knew it well.