Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POE'S PURGATORY by JOHN BANISTER TABB

First Line: ALL OTHERS REST; BUT I
Last Line: AND SHRINES ME THERE.
Subject(s): POE, EDGAR ALLAN (1809-1849);
All others rest; but I
Dream-haunted lie --
A distant roar,
As of tumultuous waters, evermore
About my brain.

E'en sleep, though fain
To soothe me, flies affrighted, and alone
I bear the incumbent stone
Of death
That stifles breath,
But not the hideous chorus crying "Shame!"
Upon my name.

Had I not Song?
Yea, and it lingers yet
The souls to fret
Of an ignoble throng,
Aflame with hate
Of the exulting fate
That hurls her idols from her temple fair
And shrines me there.



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