ALONE

From childhood’s hour I have not been
As others were--- I have not seen
As others saw--- I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I lov’d, I lov’d alone.
Then--- in my childhood--- in the dawn
Of a most stormy life--- was drawn
From ev’ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me roll’d
In the autumn tint of gold---
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass’d me flying by---
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Edgar Allen Poe---