Tynan Portillo presents, featuring the works of Edgar Allan Poe and the best horror stories from the 19th century. Welcome to The Poe Show podcast. Music and narration by Tynan Portillo.

Today’s episode, To My Mother by Edgar Allan Poe.

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 dear 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.

Hello and welcome back to The Poe Show, I’m your host Tynan Portillo and a very happy Mother’s Day. Give this podcast a 5 star rating, and follow and subscribe on YouTube, Spotify and more. Today be sure to give your mother a call, or a text, or a visit, or flowers, or a card, or chocolates, or a nice dinner, or whatever, you get the idea. Since today is a day that we all celebrate the mothers in our lives and the sacrifices they make to raise us and protect us, this poem is more than fitting.

This poem was published in July of 1849, just 3 months before Edgar Allan Poe’s death; two years after his wife, Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe, had died. Poe had written this poem for Virginia’s mother, Maria Poe. In the poem he expresses how Maria is not his own mother but how, since she was mother to the woman he loved so dearly, she is more dear to him than his own mother whom he had little connection with. Edgar’s mother, Eliza Poe, had died at the age of 24, when Edgar was only 2 years old.

He starts the poem by stating that because the angels in Heaven have no more devotional a term of love than “Mother” he calls Maria by that term. He’s considered her his own mother for a long time. She’s even more than mother to him, because she fills the absence of Virginia in his heart. He loves Maria more dearly because she is the one who brought Virginia into the world. It’s clear that after Virginia’s death, both Maria and Edgar were filled with immense sorrow, and most likely sought comfort with one another, and Maria treated Poe as her own child as well.

This day, as we appreciate our own mothers, and the ones who honorarily take on the title of mother for people who need them, I’d like to remember and appreciate my own mother, Sara McDonald.

My mother is the strongest person I’ve ever known. She carried me for 9 months. She had a C section to bring me into this world because my head was just too big. She left an abusive marriage to protect me. She raised me as a single mother for a time and struggled to afford diapers and food because there’s so few jobs where you can take your kid along and babysitters aren’t free. She married a strong, good man who taught me invaluable lessons. And she gave me great motivation to get a good education and push myself to grow. I have the best mother in the world. Sorry, there's no competition.

She has entertained millions of people throughout her career, educated thousands and given them the opportunity to change their lives and get out of bad situations, and she has brought laughs, tears and joy to countless amounts of people. Her voice has elated the ears of audiences from everywhere. Her beauty has shined in the lives of only the most lucky to know her. She deserves more than life has given her. She deserves immortality, to be remembered as Sara McDonald, The Titanium Woman. So go listen to her episode on the podcast, The Unnatural Mother, so you can better appreciate her talents. Not to mention, that’s a great episode to listen to on Mother’s Day as well, since its message is all about what makes a great mother.

So this Mother’s Day, you’d better be giving your mom a call at least.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Poe Show. If you like this podcast, give it a 5 star rating and follow on Instagram @thepoeshowpodcast, on TikTok @poeshowpodcast and on Bluesky @thepoeshow.bsky.social. Contact me on ACX for Audible to narrate your audiobook or email poeshowpod@gmail.com with details about your voiceover project.

That’s all for now, but you’ll hear from me again on the next episode of The Poe Show.