Where wast thou, O Power Eternal! When the fiery fiend, infernal, Beat me with his burning fasces, Till I sank to rise no more? O, was all my life-long error Crowded in that night of terror? Did my sin find expiation, Which to judgment went before, Summoned to a dread tribunal, In the streets of Baltimore? Nay, with deep, delirious pleasure, I had drained my life’s full measure, Till the fatal, fiery serpent, Fed upon my being’s core! Then with force and fire volcanic, Summoning a strength Titanic, Did I burst the bonds that bound me-- Battered down my being’s door; Fled, and left my shattered dwelling To the dust of Baltimore! Gazing back without lamenting, With no sorrowful repenting, I can read my life’s sad story In a light unknown before! For there is no woe so dismal, Not an evil so abysmal, But a rainbow arch of glory Spans the yawning chasm o’er! And across that Bridge of Beauty Did I pass from Baltimore! In that grand, Eternal City, Where the angel-hearts take pity On the sin which men forgive not, Or inactively deplore, Earth has lost the power to harm me! Death can never more alarm me, And I drink fresh inspiration From the Source which I adore-- Through my Spirit’s apothéosis-- That new birth in Baltimore! Now no longer sadly yearning yearning-- Love for love finds sweet returning-- And there comes no ghostly raven, Tapping at my chamber door! Calmly, in the golden glory, I can sit and read life’s story, For my soul from out that shadow Hath been lifted evermore-- From that deep and dismal shadow, In the streets of Baltimore! [As the following lecture is, in a certain sense, an introduction to Poe’s “Farewell to Earth,” it has been considered advisable to publish it in connection with the poem.] THE MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS. A LECTURE DELIVERED BY MISS LIZZIE DOTEN, AT CLINTON HALL, MONDAY, P. M., NOV. 2, 1863. [Phonographically reported by Robert S. Moore.] For several reasons, we must be as brief and comprehensive as possible in our remarks to-night. We do not intend to make any great intellectual effort, or to endeavor to astonish you with lofty strains of eloquence. We simply desire to present to you a few facts in connection with the poem about to be given, and we do this under the distinctive title of our discourse,--THE MYSTERIES OF GODLINESS.