The Complete poems of Edgar Allan Poe, by Edgar Allan Poe

Poetry (1824)

This poem, most likely incomplete, was never printed in Poe’s lifetime. Its two lines were found written on a page of some of John Allan’s financial records. This is the earliest surviving manuscript in Poe’s own hand.

Last night, with many cares and toils oppress’d
Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest —