Alone, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, Which May Reveal His Tormented Youth

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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 its 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.

— Poe's Poems, Henneberry Edition, c.1901

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