Poe Fridays: To My Mother

This week's Poe Fridays poem is the tame To My Mother. It is short so I will copy it here --

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you--
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother--my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

This poem was obviously written to Maria Clemm, Poe's mother-in-law. She was a substitute mother to Poe, who lost his own mother at a very early age. It is simply an homage to the woman who ran his various homes and tended to the girl he loved through her short life and illness. There is nothing more here than a very sweet thank you letter and there doesn't seem to be much more to say.

Next week's Poe Fridays reading will be another poem, The Forest Reverie.

Hoping to be one loved dearly,
K