To My Mother

"To My Mother" is a sonnet written by Edgar Allan Poe that was first published in issues #27 of volume IV of Flag of Our Union on 7 July 1849.

Original text
Because I feel that, in the heavens above, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of ‘mother’ — Therefore by that sweet name I long have called you — You, who are more than mother unto me, And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you, In setting my Virginia’s spirit free. My mother — my own mother — who died early — Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, And thus are dearer than the mother I knew; By that infinity with which my wife Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.