The Lake. To, Edgar Allan Poe: Summary, Analysis & Themes
"The Lake. To—" was first published in Poe’s 1827 collection Tamerlane and Other Poems under the title The Lake . The amended title appeared in Poe's 1829 collection Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems . The poem expresses Poe’s fascination with loneliness and the melancholic beauty of nature. For the 1845 collection The Raven and Other Poems , Poe revised the first line, changing it from “In youth’s spring, it was my lot” to “In spring of youth it was my lot.”
"The Lake. To—" Poem Text by Edgar Allan Poe In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less—
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot, as upon all,
And the mystic wind went by
Murmuring in melody—
Then—ah then I would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright,
But a tremulous delight—
A feeling not the j…