cultes-des-goules: “I SAW thee once — once only — years ago:I must not say how
cultes-des-goules: “I SAW thee once — once only — years ago:I must not say how many — but not many.It was a July midnight; and from outA full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,Upon the upturn’d faces of a thousandRoses that grew in an enchanted garden,Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe —Fell on the upturn’d faces of these rosesThat gave out, in return for the love-light,Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death —Fell on the upturn’d faces of these rosesThat smiled and died in this parterre, enchantedBy thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.” Excerpt from “To Helen” (To Sarah Helen Whitman) Poe first set eyes on Whitman as she stood in the rose garden behind her Benefit Street home. The house and garden are much the same as they were nearly two centuries ago. -- source link