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_Lal_. Why dost thou pause, Politian?
_Pol_. And then perchance
_Arise_ together, Lalage, and roam
The starry and quiet dwellings of the blest,
And still--
_Lal_. Why dost thou pause, Politian?
_Pol_. And still _together_... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Lal_. A deed is to be done--
Castiglione lives!
_Pol_. And he shall die!
(_Exit_.)
_Lal_.
(_after a pause_). And--he--shall--die!--alas!
Castiglione die? Who spoke the words?
Where am I?--what was it he said?--Politian!
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Pol_. _What_ didst thou say?
What answer was it you brought me, good Baldazzar?
With what excessive fragrance the zephyr comes
Laden from yonder bowers!--a fairer day,
Or one more worthy Italy, methinks
No mortal eyes... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Pol_. At the Vatican.
(_Exit Bal_.)
_Enter Castiglione_.
_Cas_. The Earl of Leicester here!
_Pol_. I _am_ the Earl of Leicester, and thou seest,
Dost thou not, that I am here?
_Cas_. My lord, some strange,
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Pol.
(greatly softened_). Alas!--I do--indeed I pity thee.
_Cas_. And Lalage--
_Pol_. _Scoundrel!--arise and die!_
_Cas_. It needeth not be--thus--thus--Oh, let me die
Thus on my bended knee. It were most fitting
That in this deep humiliation I peri... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Duke_. Why do you laugh?
_Castiglione_. Indeed.
I hardly know myself. Stay! Was it not
On yesterday we were speaking of the Earl?
Of the Earl Politian? Yes! it was yesterday.
Alessandra, you and I, you must remember!
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
_Duke_. Did I not tell you?
_Cas_. You did--and yet 'tis strange! but true, as strange,
How much I was mistaken! I always thought
The Earl a gloomy man.
_Duke_. So, so, you see!
Be not too positive. Whom have we here?
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
(_Exit, followed by Politian_.)
_Duke_. Retire! Unwell!
_Bal_. So please you, sir. I fear me
'Tis as you say--his lordship is unwell.
The damp air of the evening--the fatigue
Of a long journey--the--indeed I had better
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"You are aware of the great barrier in the path of an American writer.
He is read, if at all, in preference to the combined and established wit
of the world. I say established; for it is with literature as with law
or empire--an established name is an estate in tenure, or a throne in
possession. Besides, one might sup... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"I dare say Milton preferred 'Comus' to either--if so--justly.
"As I am speaking of poetry, it will not be amiss to touch slightly upon
the most singular heresy in its modern history--the heresy of what is
called, very foolishly, the Lake School. Some years ago I might have
been induced, by an occasion like the presen... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"Against the subtleties which would make poetry a study--not a
passion--it becomes the metaphysician to reason--but the poet to
protest. Yet Wordsworth and Coleridge are men in years; the one imbued
in contemplation from his childhood; the other a giant in intellect and
learning. The diffidence, then, with which I ven... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"He was to blame in wearing away his youth in contemplation with the end
of poetizing in his manhood. With the increase of his judgment the light
which should make it apparent has faded away. His judgment consequently
is too correct. This may not be understood,--but the old Goths of
Germany would have understood it, w... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"'And now she's at the pony's tail,
And now she's at the pony's head,
On that side now, and now on this;
And, almost stifled with her bliss,
A few sad tears does Betty shed....
She pats the pony, where or when
She knows not ... happy Betty Foy!
Oh, Johnny, never mind the doctor!'
"Secondly:
"'The dew... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"What is Poetry?--Poetry! that Proteus-like idea, with as many
appellations as the nine-titled Corcyra! 'Give me,' I demanded of a
scholar some time ago, 'give me a definition of poetry.'
'_Tres-volontiers;_' and he proceeded to his library, brought me a Dr.
Johnson, and overwhelmed me with a definition. Shade of the ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1829.
* * * * *
Private reasons--some of which have reference to the sin of plagiarism,
and others to the date of Tennyson's first poems [1]--have induced me,
after some hesitation, to republish these, the crude compositions of my
earliest boyhood. They are printed 'verbatim'--without a... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers: of lilies such as rear'd the head
On the fair Capo Deucato [2], and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of--deep pride--
Of her who lov'd a mortal--and so died [3].
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Uprear'd its purple st... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
She ceas'd--and buried then her burning cheek
Abash'd, amid the lilies there, to seek
A shelter from the fervor of His eye;
For the stars trembled at the Deity.
She stirr'd not--breath'd not--for a voice was there
How solemnly pervading the calm air!
A sound of silence on the startled ear
Which dreamy ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Young flowers were whispering in melody [21]
To happy flowers that night--and tree to tree;
Fountains were gushing music as they fell
In many a star-lit grove, or moon-light dell;
Yet silence came upon material things--
Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings--
And sound alone that from the spiri... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Go! breathe on their slumber,
All softly in ear,
The musical number
They slumber'd to hear--
For what can awaken
An angel so soon
Whose sleep hath been taken
Beneath the cold moon,
As the spell which no slumber
Of witchery may test,
The rhythmical number
Whic... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!
How lovely 'tis to look so far away!
She seemed not thus upon that autumn eve
I left her gorgeous halls--nor mourned to leave,
That eve--that eve--I should remember well--
The sun-ray dropped, in Lemnos with a spell
On th' Arabesque carving of a gilded hall
Wher... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"We came--and to thy Earth--but not to us
Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:
We came, my love; around, above, below,
Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,
Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod
_She_ grants to us as granted by her God--
But, Angelo, than thine gray Time unfurled
Never his fairy w... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
[Footnote 8: The Hyacinth.]
[Footnote 9: It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first seen
floating in one of these down the river Ganges, and that he still loves
the cradle of his childhood.]
[Footnote 10: And golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of
the saints.--'Rev. St. John.']
[Footnote 11:... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"Je connais bien l'admiration qu'inspirent ces ruines--mais un palais
érigé au pied d'une chaîne de rochers steriles--peut-il être un chef
d'oeuvre des arts!"]
[Footnote 18: "Oh, the wave"--Ula Deguisi is the Turkish appellation;
but, on its own shores, it is called Baliar Loth, or Al-motanah. There
were undoub... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
O! were there an island,
Tho' ever so wild,
Where woman might smile, and
No man be beguil'd, etc. ]
[Footnote 26: With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and
Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that
tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of
h... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I have not always been as now:
The fevered diadem on my brow
I claimed and won usurpingly--
Hath not the same fierce heirdom given
Rome to the Cæsar--this to me?
The heritage of a kingly mind,
And a proud spirit which hath striven
Triumphantly with human kind.
On mountain soil I first drew life:
Th... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
O, she was worthy of all love!
Love as in infancy was mine--
'Twas such as angel minds above
Might envy; her young heart the shrine
On which my every hope and thought
Were incense--then a goodly gift,
For they were childish and upright--
Pure--as her young example taught:
Why did I leave it, and, adr... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I spoke to her of power and pride,
But mystically--in such guise
That she might deem it nought beside
The moment's converse; in her eyes
I read, perhaps too carelessly--
A mingled feeling with my own--
The flush on her bright cheek, to me
Seemed to become a queenly throne
Too well that I should let i... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Father, I firmly do believe--
I _know_--for Death who comes for me
From regions of the blest afar,
Where there is nothing to deceive,
Hath left his iron gate ajar.
And rays of truth you cannot see
Are flashing thro' Eternity----
I do believe that Eblis hath
A snare in every human path--
Else how, w... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1831.
* * * * *
ISRAFEL. [1]
In Heaven a spirit doth dwell
"Whose heart-strings are a lute;"
None sing so wildly well
As the angel Israfel,
And the giddy Stars (so legends tell),
Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell
Of his voice, all mute.
Tottering above
In he... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1829.
* * * * *
TO----
The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see
The wantonest singing birds,
Are lips--and all thy melody
Of lip-begotten words--
Thine eyes, in Heaven of heart enshrined
Then desolately fall,
O God! on my funereal mind
Like starlight on a pall--
T... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1837.
* * * * *
A DREAM.
In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed--
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon th... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1831
* * * * *
THE LAKE.
In spring of youth it was my lot
To haunt of the wide world a spot
The which I could not love the less--
So lovely was the loneliness
Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that towered around.
But when the Night had thrown her ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1827.
* * * * *
"THE HAPPIEST DAY."
I. The happiest day--the happiest hour
My seared and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.
II. Of power! said I? Yes! such I ween
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
1827
* * * * *
DREAMS.
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awakening, till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow.
Yes! though that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
'Twere better than the cold reality
Of waking life, to him whose heart must... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
II. Perhaps it may be that my mind is wrought
To a ferver [1] by the moonbeam that hangs o'er,
But I will half believe that wild light fraught
With more of sovereignty than ancient lore
Hath ever told--or is it of a thought
The unembodied essence, and no m... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
V. Or that my tone should be
Tun'd to such solemn song
So mournfully--so mournfully,
That the dead may feel no wrong.
VI. But she is gone above,
With young Hope at her side,
And I am drunk with love
Of the dead, who is my bride.--
VII. Of t... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
31. The earliest version of "Tamerlane" was included in the suppressed
volume of 1827, but differs very considerably from the poem as now
published. The present draft, besides innumerable verbal alterations and
improvements upon the original, is more carefully punctuated, and, ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
DOUBTFUL POEMS.
* * * * *
ALONE.
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 ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
IV. Like music heard in dreams,
Like strains of harps unknown,
Of birds for ever flown,--
Audible as the voice of streams
That murmur in some leafy dell,
I hear thy gentlest tone,
And Silence cometh with her spell
Like that which on my to... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Instantly away we wandered
In the shadowy twilight tide,
She, the silent, scornful maiden,
Walking calmly at my side,
With a step serene and stately,
All in beauty, all in pride.
Vacantly I walked beside her.
On the earth mine eyes were cast;
Swift and keen there came unto me
Bitter memor... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
NOTES.
Of the many verses from time to time ascribed to the pen of Edgar Poe,
and not included among his known writings, the lines entitled "Alone"
have the chief claim to our notice. 'Fac-simile' copies of this piece
had been in possession of the present editor some time prev... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
PROSE POEMS.
* * * * *
THE ISLAND OF THE FAY.
"Nullus enim locus sine genio est."
_Servius_.
"_La musique_," says Marmontel, in those "Contes Moraux"[1] which in all
our translations we have insisted upon ca... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Our telescopes and our mathematical investigations assure us on every
hand, notwithstanding the cant of the more ignorant of the priesthood,
that space, and therefore that bulk, is an important consideration in
the eyes of the Almighty. The cycles in which the stars move are those
best adapted for the evolution, witho... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
It was during one of my lonely journeyings, amid a far distant region of
mountain locked within mountain, and sad rivers and melancholy tarns
writhing or sleeping within all, that I chanced upon a certain rivulet
and island. I came upon them suddenly in the leafy June, and threw
myself upon the turf beneath the branch... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The other or eastern end of the isle was whelmed in the blackest shade.
A sombre, yet beautiful and peaceful gloom, here pervaded all things.
The trees were dark in color and mournful in form and attitude--
wreathing themselves into sad, solemn, and spectral shapes, that
conveyed ideas of mortal sorrow and untimely de... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
And again the boat appeared and the Fay, but about the attitude of the
latter there was more of care and uncertainty and less of elastic joy.
She floated again from out the light and into the gloom (which deepened
momently), and again her shadow fell from her into the ebony water, and
became absorbed into its blacknes... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Agathos'.
_That_ (since he is The Most Happy) must be still the _one_ thing
unknown even to HIM.
'Oinos.'
But, since we grow hourly in knowledge, must not _at last_ all things
be known?
'Agathos.'
Look down into the abysmal distances!--attempt to force the gaze down
the multitudinous vistas of the star... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Oinos.'
I can comprehend you thus far--that certain operations of what we term
Nature, or the natural laws, will, under certain conditions, give rise
to that which has all the _appearance_ of creation. Shortly before the
final overthrow of the earth, there were, I well remember, many very
successful experi... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Oinos.'
And why, Agathos, should they have proceeded?
'Agathos.'
Because there were some considerations of deep interest beyond. It was
deducible from what they knew, that to a being of infinite
understanding--one to whom the _perfection_ of the algebraic analysis
lay unfolded--there could be no difficult... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Agathos'.
It must: but a true philosophy has long taught that the source of all
motion is thought--and the source of all thought is--
'Oinos'.
God.
'Agathos'.
I have spoken to you, Oinos, as to a child, of the fair Earth which
lately perished--of impulses upon the atmosphere of the earth.
'Oinos'.
You... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Monos'.
Speak not here of these griefs, dear Una--mine, mine forever now!
'Una'.
But the memory of past sorrow, is it not present joy? I have much to
say yet of the things which have been. Above all, I burn to know the
incidents of your own passage through the dark Valley and Shadow.
'Monos'.
And when di... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
And now it was, fairest and dearest, that we wrapped our spirits,
daily, in dreams. Now it was that, in twilight, we discoursed of the
days to come, when the Art-scarred surface of the Earth, having
undergone that purification which alone could efface its rectangular
obscenities, should clothe itself anew in... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I breathed no longer. The pulses were still. The heart had ceased to
beat. Volition had not departed, but was powerless. The senses were
unusually active, although eccentrically so--assuming often each
other's functions at random. The taste and the smell were inextricably
confounded, and became one sentiment... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
They attired me for the coffin--three or four dark figures which
flitted busily to and fro. As these crossed the direct line of my
vision they affected me as _forms;_ but upon passing to my side their
images impressed me with the idea of shrieks, groans, and, other
dismal expressions of terror, of horror, or... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
And now, from the wreck and the chaos of the usual senses, there
appeared to have arisen within me a sixth, all perfect. In its
exercise I found a wild delight--yet a delight still physical,
inasmuch as the understanding had in it no part. Motion in the animal
frame had fully ceased. No muscle quivered; no n... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Yet had not all of sentience departed; for the consciousness and the
sentiment remaining supplied some of its functions by a lethargic
intuition. I appreciated the direful change now in operation upon the
flesh, and, as the dreamer is sometimes aware of the bodily presence
of one who leans over him, so, swee... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
[Footnote 1:
"It will be hard to discover a better [method of education] than that
which the experience of so many ages has already discovered; and this
may be summed up as consisting in gymnastics for the body, and
_music_ for the soul."
Repub. lib. 2.
"For this reason is a musical education most essential;... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
'Charmion'.
A few days will remove all this;--but I fully understand you, and
feel for you. It is now ten earthly years since I underwent what you
undergo--yet the remembrance of it hangs by me still. You have now
suffered all of pain, however, which you will suffer in Aidenn.
'Eiros'.
In Aidenn?
'Charmio... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The elements of the strange orb were immediately calculated, and it
was at once conceded by all observers that its path, at perihelion
would bring it into very close proximity with the earth. There were
two or three astronomers of secondary note who resolutely maintained
that a contact was inevitable. I cann... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
What minor evils might arise from the contact were points of elaborate
question. The learned spoke of slight geological disturbances, of
probable alterations in climate, and consequently in vegetation; of
possible magnetic and electric influences. Many held that no visible
or perceptible effect would in any ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Yet another day--and the evil was not altogether upon us. It was now
evident that its nucleus would first reach us. A wild change had come
over all men; and the first sense of _pain_ was the wild signal for
general lamentation and horror. The first sense of pain lay in a
rigorous construction of the breast a... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
SHADOW.--A PARABLE.
Yea! though I walk through the valley of the _Shadow_.
'Psalm of David'.
Ye who read are still among the living; but I who write shall have long
since gone my way into the region of shadows. For indeed strange things
shall happen, and secret things... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
* * * * *
SILENCE.--A FABLE.
The mountain pinnacles slumber; valleys, crags, and caves _are silent_.
"LISTEN to _me_," said the Demon, as he placed his hand upon my head.
"The region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders
of the river Zäire. And there is no quiet t... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the
rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the
action of the man. And the man was tall and stately in form, and wrapped
up from his shoulders to his feet in the toga of old Rome. And the
outlines of his figure were indistinct-... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"Then I grew angry and cursed, with the curse of silence, the river, and
the lilies, and the wind, and the forest, and the heaven, and the
thunder, and the sighs of the water-lilies. And they became accursed,
and _were still._ And the moon ceased to totter up its pathway to
heaven--and the thunder died away--and the l... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
ESSAYS.
* * * * *
THE POETIC PRINCIPLE.
In speaking of the Poetic Principle, I have no design to be either
thorough or profound. While discussing very much at random the
essentiality of what we call Poetry, my principal purpose will be to
cite for cons... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
In regard to the Iliad, we have, if not positive proof, at least very
good reason, for believing it intended as a series of lyrics; but,
granting the epic intention, I can say only that the work is based in an
imperfect sense of Art. The modern epic is, of the supposititious
ancient model, but an inconsiderate and bli... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
On the other hand, it is clear that a poem may be improperly brief.
Undue brevity degenerates into mere epigrammatism. A _very_ short poem,
while now and then producing a brilliant or vivid, never produces a
profound or enduring effect. There must be the steady pressing down of
the stamp upon the wax. De Béranger has ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The shadows lay along Broadway,
'Twas near the twilight-tide--
And slowly there a lady fair
Was walking in her pride.
Alone walk'd she; but, viewlessly
Walk'd spirits at her side.
Peace charm'd the street beneath her feet,
And honor charm'd the air;
And all astir looked kind on her,
And ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
With as deep a reverence for the True as ever inspired the bosom of man,
I would nevertheless limit, in some measure, its modes of inculcation. I
would limit to enforce them. I would not enfeeble them by dissipation.
The demands of Truth are severe. She has no sympathy with the myrtles.
All _that_ which is so indispen... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The struggle to apprehend the supernal Loveliness--this struggle, on the
part of souls fittingly constituted--has given to the world all _that_
which it (the world) has ever been enabled at once to understand and _to
feel_ as poetic.
The Poetic Sentiment, of course, may develop itself in various modes--in
Painting, in... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I cannot better introduce the few poems which I shall present for your
consideration, than by the citation of the Pröem to Longfellow's "Waif":
The day is done, and the darkness
Falls from the wings of Night,
As a feather is wafted downward
From an eagle in his flight.
I see the lights of the village
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Among the minor poems of Bryant, none has so much impressed me as the
one which he entitles "June." I quote only a portion of it:
There, through the long, long summer hours,
The golden light should lie,
And thick young herbs and groups of flowers
Stand in their beauty by.
The oriole should build and tel... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain,
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles the rain.
The taint of which I speak is clearly perceptible even in a poem so full
of brilliancy and spirit as "The Health" of Edward Coote Pinkney:
I fill this cup to one made up
Of loveline... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
It was by no means my design, however, to expatiate upon the _merits_
of what I should read you. These will necessarily speak for themselves.
Boccalina, in his 'Advertisements from Parnassus', tells us that Zoilus
once presented Apollo a very caustic criticism upon a very admirable
book:--whereupon the god asked him f... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
It has been the fashion of late days to deny Moore Imagination, while
granting him Fancy--a distinction originating with Coleridge--than whom
no man more fully comprehended the great powers of Moore. The fact is,
that the fancy of this poet so far predominates over all his other
faculties, and over the fancy of all o... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Farewell, farewell, fair Ines,
That vessel never bore
So fair a lady on its deck,
Nor danced so light before,--
Alas for pleasure on the sea,
And sorrow on the shore!
The smile that blest one lover's heart
Has broken many more!
"The Haunted House," by the same author, is one of the truest poem... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Who was her father?
Who was her mother!
Had she a sister?
Had she a brother?
Or was there a dearer one
Still, and a nearer one
Yet, than all other?
Alas! for the rarity
Of Christian charity
Under the sun!
Oh! it was pitiful!
Near a whole city full,
Home she had none.
Sisterly, brotherly,
... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Though the rock of my last hope is shivered,
And its fragments are sunk in the wave,
Though I feel that my soul is delivered
To pain--it shall not be its slave.
There is many a pang to pursue me:
They may crush, but they shall not contemn--
They may torture, but shall not subdue me--
'Tis of _t... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the und... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Let me conclude by the recitation of yet another brief poem, one very
different in character from any that I have before quoted. It is by
Motherwell, and is called "The Song of the Cavalier." With our modern
and altogether rational ideas of the absurdity and impiety of warfare,
we are not precisely in that frame of mi... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
There is a radical error, I think, in the usual mode of constructing a
story. Either history affords a thesis--or one is suggested by an
incident of the day--or, at best, the author sets himself to work in the
combination of striking events to form merely the basis of his
narrative---designing, generally, to fill in w... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I am aware, on the other hand, that the case is by no means common, in
which an author is at all in condition to retrace the steps by which his
conclusions have been attained. In general, suggestions, having arisen
pell-mell, are pursued and forgotten in a similar manner.
For my own part, I have neither sympathy with ... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
It appears evident, then, that there is a distinct limit, as regards
length, to all works of literary art--the limit of a single sitting--and
that, although in certain classes of prose composition, such as
_Robinson Crusoe_ (demanding no unity), this limit may be advantageously
overpassed, it can never properly be ove... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Regarding, then, Beauty as my province, my next question referred to the
_tone_ of its highest manifestation--and all experience has shown that
this tone is one of _sadness_. Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme
development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy
is thus the most legitimate of a... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The question now arose as to the _character_ of the word. Having made up
my mind to a _refrain_, the division of the poem into stanzas was of
course a corollary, the _refrain_ forming the close to each stanza. That
such a close, to have force, must be sonorous and susceptible of
protracted emphasis, admitted no doubt,... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
I had now to combine the two ideas of a lover lamenting his deceased
mistress and a Raven continuously repeating the word "Nevermore." I had
to combine these, bearing in mind my design of varying at every turn the
_application_ of the word repeated, but the only intelligible mode of
such combination is that of imagini... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
"Prophet," said I, "thing of evil! prophet still if bird or devil!
By that heaven that bends above us--by that God we both adore,
Tell this soul with sorrow laden, if within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
The next point to be considered was the mode of bringing together the
lover and the Raven--and the first branch of this consideration was the
_locale_. For this the most natural suggestion might seem to be a
forest, or the fields--but it has always appeared to me that a close
_circumscription of space_ is absolutely n... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Not the _least obeisance made he_--not a moment stopped or stayed he,
_But with mien of lord or lady_, perched above my chamber door.
In the two stanzas which follow, the design is more obviously carried
out:
Then this ebony bird beguiling my _sad fancy_ into smiling
By the _grave and stern decorum of the c... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
But in subjects so handled, however skilfully, or with however vivid an
array of incident, there is always a certain hardness or nakedness which
repels the artistical eye. Two things are invariably required--first,
some amount of complexity, or more properly, adaptation; and, secondly,
some amount of suggestiveness, s... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
It should not be doubted that at least one-third of the affection with
which we regard the elder poets of Great Britain should be attributed to
what is, in itself, a thing apart from poetry--we mean to the simple
love of the antique--and that, again, a third of even the proper _poetic
sentiment_ inspired by their wri... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
We cannot bring ourselves to believe that the selections of the "Book of
Gems" are such as will impart to a poetical reader the clearest possible
idea of the beauty of the _school_--but if the intention had been merely
to show the school's character, the attempt might have been considered
successful in the highest deg... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
But these lines, however good, do not bear with them much of the general
character of the English antique. Something more of this will be found
in Corbet's "Farewell to the Fairies!" We copy a portion of Marvell's
"Maiden lamenting for her Fawn," which we prefer--not only as a specimen
of the elder poets, but in itse... | The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry | Poe, Edgar Allan | 1809 | 1849 | ['en'] | 1287 | {'Fantasy poetry, American'} | PG10031 | |
Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| CONANT'S |
| ... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 | |||
Vol. I. No. 24.
PUNCHINELLO
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1870.
PUBLISHED BY THE
PUNCHINELLO PUBLISHING COMPANY,
83 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.
* * * * *
THE MYSTERY OF MR. E. DROOD,
By ORPHEUS C. KERR,
Continued in this Number.
See 15th Page for Extra Premiums.
+----------------------------... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 | |||
THE MYSTERY OF MR. E. DROOD.
AN ADAPTATION.
BY ORPHEUS C. KERR.
CHAPTER XVII.
INSURANCE AND ASSURANCE.
Six months had come and gone and done it; the weather was as
inordinately hot as it had before been intolerably cold; and the
Reverend OCTAVIUS SIMPSON stood waiting, in the gorgeous Office of the
Boreal Life Insura... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 | |||
The Reverend OCTAVIUS studied these sprightly little scenes with
unspeakable interest until the arrival of Mr. SCHENCK, and then followed
that popular benefactor into his private office with the air of a man
who had gained a heightened admiration for his species.
"So you have come to your senses at last!" said Mr. SCH... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 | |||
"And you will not have your life insured?"
"I will not, sir. Please stop bothering me."
"And you call yourself a clergyman!" cried Mr. SCHENCK, with intense
scorn. "You pretend to be a Ritualistic spiritual guide; you champion
people who slay the innocent and steal devout men's umbrellas; and yet
you do not scruple to... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 | |||
"Hard at it?" he asked, approaching a ricketty table at which sat the
persecuted Southerner, reading a volume of HOYLE'S Games.
"My only friend!" ejaculated the lonely reader, hurriedly covering the
book with an arm. "I am, as you see, studying law here, all alone with
these silent friends."
He waved his thin hand tow... | Punchinello, Volume 1, No. 24, September 10, 1870 | Various | ['en'] | 11 | {'American wit and humor -- Periodicals'} | PG10032 |
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