To Zante
by Edgar Allan Poe

US poet, critic and short story writer. Poe is best known for his macabre horror stories including The Fall of the House of Usher, The Gold Bug and The Black Cat (1842). His key poems include Lenore (1831), The Raven (1842), Ulalume (1847). He also wrote some critical essays including The Philosophy of Composition (1846), Time and Space (1844) and The Poetic Principle (1850), and a novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838). Poe had a great influence on a number of writers including Arthur Conan Doyle and Jules Verne.

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To Zante
by Edgar Allan Poe

Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers,
    Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take
How many memories of what radiant hours
    At sight of thee and thine at once awake!
How many scenes of what departed bliss!
    How many thoughts of what entombed hopes!
How many visions of a maiden that is
    No more - no more upon thy verdant slopes!
No more! alas, that magical sad sound
    Transfomring all! Thy charms shall please no more -
Thy memory no more! Accursed ground
    Henceforth I hold thy flower-enamelled shore,
O hyacinthine isle! O purple Zante!
    "Isoa d'oro! Fior di Levante!"

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To Zante by Edgar Allan Poe