The Happiest Day, by Edgar Allan Poe

The happiest day - the happiest hour
My sear'd and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.

Of power! said I? yes! such I ween;
But they have vanish'd long, alas!
The visions of my youth have been -
But let them pass.

And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may even inherit
The venom thou hast pour'd on me
Be still, my spirit!

The happiest day - the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see - have ever seen,
The brightest glance of pride and power,
I feel - have been:

But were that hope of pride and power
Now offer'd with the pain
Even then I felt - that brightest hour
I would not live again:

For on its wing was dark alloy,
And, as it flutter'd - fell
An essence - powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well.


Explication:

"The Happiest Day" or, "The Happiest Day, the Happiest Hour" is a six quatrain poem . It was first published as part of in Poe's first collection Tamerlane and Other Poems. Poe may have written it while serving in the army. The poem ties in with my theme of the transience of youth as it discusses a self-pitying loss of youth.

"The Happiest Day" has a standard rhyme scheme ABAB. The poem echoes a universal characteristic: looking back, we all wish we could have done things differently. Poe also portrays his sense of imminent death. His past tense first person passive voice emanates a feeling of submissiveness toward the arrival of death. But then, The line "highest hope of pride and power" alludes to heaven and and the glory of God. It seems Poe toys with the reader's emotions by swinging back and forth from positive to negative tones. Poe also uses apostrophe, "And, pride, what have I now with thee" to dramatize Poe's pensive and capture the reader's attention.

This poem was indeed thought-provoking and I found that I could connect with Poe's sense of regret and longing to redo his past.