QuoteProject
Alas! for that accursed time They bore thee o'er the billow, From love to titled age and crime, And an unholy pillow! From me, and from our misty clime, Where weeps the silver willow!
Edgar Allan Poe
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote expresses a sense of loss and sorrow due to the passage of time and the corruption of love.

In this poignant reflection, Edgar Allan Poe laments the journey of love twisted by time into something corrupt and painful. The imagery of the 'accursed time' and 'unholy pillow' suggests a romantic ideal that has been marred by societal expectations and moral decay, evoking deep emotions of longing and grief for what has been lost.

Themes

LoveLossTimeSorrowCorruption

In practice

Example use cases

A speaker could use this quote during a poetry reading to illustrate the complexities of love.

More from Edgar Allan Poe

But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
Edgar Allan PoeRead
In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
Edgar Allan PoeRead

Similar quotes

Sweet love! Sweet lines! Sweet life! Here is her hand, the agent of her heart; Here is her oath for love, her honour's pawn
William ShakespeareRead
Oh, I believe that there is no away; that no love, no life, goes ever from us; it goes as He went, that it may come again, deeper and closer and surer, and be with us always, even to the end of the world.
George MacdonaldRead
Part of my soul I seek thee, and claim thee my other half
John MiltonRead
What I write comes from a place of deep love, and a deep understanding of all kinds of otherness.
Jacqueline WoodsonRead
God dislikes evil, and no happiness can be built on hate. Love one another as brothers.
Josephine BakerRead
love is a hawk with velvet claws love is a rock with heart and veins love is a lion with satin jaws love is a storm with silken reins
Kurt VonnegutRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.