My love… The Lady Irene

One bright night, in the month of June,

I stand alone, above all, upon a quiet mountain top

beneath a bright mystic moon.

Fog steals softly, dripping, drop by drop,

wave upon wave, into the valley,

as Irene, my Beauty sleeps.

Drowsily, she exhales, so musically

I pray to God her slumb’ring soul does keep.

To the holy God in heaven, I pray.

My Love, she sleeps! Oh, her sleep is so deep!

Lo! I fear she is looking like the grave

Oh, my dear lady, I hast come to fear

Thy pallor is so like a lily, so strange,

Thou art not laughingly dreaming here.

A deep melancholy hast come to creep so solemn and strange

so fitfully about the lily fringéd lake…

fearfully I wonder about my love as she lies

Irene, forever with unopened eye… not awake

while the world like pale sheeted ghosts go by!

I pray to God he will not take

my love, while deep in her slumber, her sleep.

Thrilling to think, poor Irene nods upon her breast

exhales a triumphant echo from deep

silentness… Sure, she comes back from her quiet rest.

I pray:

My Holy God,

Awake my love…

golden beauty

Lady Irene!

*

A/N: My first ever attempt at a Found Poem, for the challenge below.

All words used, are contained in the original poem:

“The Sleeper” by Edgar Allan Poe (see below).

*

The Sleeper

By Edgar Allan Poe

At midnight, in the month of June,

I stand beneath the mystic moon.

An opiate vapor, dewy, dim,

Exhales from out her golden rim,

And softly dripping, drop by drop,

Upon the quiet mountain top,

Steals drowsily and musically

Into the universal valley.

The rosemary nods upon the grave;

The lily lolls upon the wave;

Wrapping the fog about its breast,

The ruin moulders into rest;

Looking like Lethe, see! the lake

A conscious slumber seems to take,

And would not, for the world, awake.

All Beauty sleeps!—and lo! where lies

Irene, with her Destinies!

*

Oh, lady bright! can it be right—

This window open to the night?

The wanton airs, from the tree-top,

Laughingly through the lattice drop—

The bodiless airs, a wizard rout,

Flit through thy chamber in and out,

And wave the curtain canopy

So fitfully—so fearfully—

Above the closed and fringéd lid

’Neath which thy slumb’ring soul lies hid,

That, o’er the floor and down the wall,

Like ghosts the shadows rise and fall!

Oh, lady dear, hast thou no fear?

Why and what art thou dreaming here?

Sure thou art come o’er far-off seas,

A wonder to these garden trees!

Strange is thy pallor! strange thy dress!

Strange, above all, thy length of tress,

And this all solemn silentness!

*

The lady sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,

Which is enduring, so be deep!

Heaven have her in its sacred keep!

This chamber changed for one more holy,

This bed for one more melancholy,

I pray to God that she may lie

Forever with unopened eye,

While the pale sheeted ghosts go by!

*

My love, she sleeps! Oh, may her sleep,

As it is lasting, so be deep!

Soft may the worms about her creep!

Far in the forest, dim and old,

For her may some tall vault unfold—

Some vault that oft hath flung its black

And wingéd pannels fluttering back,

Triumphant, o’er the crested palls

Of her grand family funerals—

*

Some sepulchre, remote, alone,

Against whose portals she hath thrown,

In childhood, many an idle stone—

Some tomb from out whose sounding door

She ne’er shall force an echo more,

Thrilling to think, poor child of sin!

It was the dead who groaned within.