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Little-oh! little dwells in thee
Like unto what on earth we see :
Beauty's eye is here the bluest
In the falsest and untruest —
On the sweetest air doth float
The most sad and solemn note—
If with thee be broken hearts,
Joy so peacefully departs,
That its echo still doth dwell,

Like the murmur in the shell.

Line 19 An oasis (A garden spot) 25 favour'd (favor'd) 28 incense (incense,) 30 Earth (s.1.) 31 Idea (s. 1.) 32 thro' (through) 35 Infinity (s. 1.) 36 curled (curl'd) 39 thro' (through) 41 color (colour) 43 rear'd (rear) 47 mortal (o. d.) 47 died (—) 49 knees: (—) 50 misnam'd (misnamed) 56 Trebizond () 59 reverie: (—) 62 head, (o. c.) 64 air, (0. c.) 65 chasten'd, (0. c.) 65 fair: -) 67 night: 69 run: (-) 70 Earth (s. 1.) 73 king: (-) 75 Rhone: (-) 81 Goddess' (s. 1.) 81 Heaven: (heaven) 82 where (o. c.) 95 red (0.) 104 dream'd (dreamed) 104 Infinity (s. 1.) 106 Oh, (O!) 112 empire (empire,) 114 winged (wing'd) 115 given, (o. c.) 117 Heaven (s. 1.) 120 fervour (fervor) 120 His (s. 1.) 120 eye; (,) 127 all. (—) 128 All (Here). [133 follows 132 without space in 1831.] 133 tho' (though) 133 cycles (cap.) 133 run, (o. c.) 134 sun — (0. d.) 139 tho' (though) 142 thro' (through) 142 Heaven. (heaven:) 143 crystal (chrystal) 146 light! (;) 150 man! (.) 152 eve! (eve) 152 Earth (s. 1.) 157 and (, and).

PART II.

() 15

Line 6 Heaven (s. 1.) 7, that (that,) 9 eve lair. (:) 17 thro' (through) 19 sky. (:) 20 Heaven (s. 1.) 27 wing. (:) 28 pillars (i.) 32 every (ev'ry) 33 peered (peered) 33 out, (o. c.) 36 Persepolis (o. d.) 38 0, (o. c.) 38 Of (Too) 39 save! (!—) 40 in (near) 50 strain (strain,) 51 again. (:) 52 cheeks were (check was)

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55 heart. (:) 57 beneath, (—) 58 hair (hair,) 59 there! (.) 60 melody (melody,) 65 and (, and) 67 sang: (·) 73 half closing (half-closing) 85 dew (dew,) 91 rest! (:) 97 apart! (,) 99 lead (hang) [112 follows 111 without space in 1831] 115 thee. (:) 128 then (then,) 129 away (away,) 131 moon-ray (o. h.) 149 soon (soon,) 154 rhythmical (rythmical) 161 0 (0) 166 (..) ([ ]) 173 Heaven's Eternity (s. 1.) 173 Hell (s. 1.) 178 maiden-angel (o. h.) 178 seraph-lover (o. h.) 181 moan. (;) 183 moss-y-mantled (mossy-mantled) 187 Beauty's (s. 1.) 189 love-haunted (o. h.) 197 the orb of Earth (one constant star) [198 follows 197 without space in 1831] 201 leave. (:) 203 sun-ray (0. h.) 204 Arabesque (Arabesq') 205 draperied (drapried) 206 eyelids (0. h.) 206 O (O!) 208 love (love,) 210 O (O!) 210 Death (s. 1.) 212 single (single,) 213 he (it) 214 Earth's (s. 1.) 219 tower, (o. c.) 226 wish'd (wished) 227 My (My) 228 dwelling-place (o. h.) 230 love." (love.) [231 follows 230 immediately] 237 soar (soar,) 242 ours ·(,) 244 Earth (earth!) [245 follows 244 immediately] 245 Earth (s. 1.) 258 Beauty's (s. 1.) 260 Beauty (s. 1) [261 follows 260 immediately] 263 Heaven (s. 1.)

EDITOR'S NOTE.

OUTLINE OF AL AARAAF.

I.

66

I. This introductory division attributes to the star discovered by Tycho Brahe surpassing beauty and melody. Nesace-personified Beauty-takes up her abode on earth, where surrounded (3) by beauty she reverently looks into the infinite.

2.

4. Flowers are grouped around her to bear her song, in odors, up to Heaven.

The Song has to do with the thought that, though humans conceive God after a model of their own, He has revealed himself as a star.

VOL. VII.-II

5.

Abashed Nesace hears the sound of silence as the eternal voice of God speaks to her, (6) bidding her tell man everywhere that he is guilty (because he believes God is only magnified man?). Let man behold Beauty as the revelation of God.

6. This maiden worshipping a vanishing star dwells on a vanishing island over which she now takes her way.

II.

Upon a mountain of enamelled top is a temple. (The description of this recalls the picture of the Pantheon suggested by Milton in Paradise Lost I.)

It is summer time, and Nesace in her halls flushed with her haste sings again amid flowers and starlight. Her song is an Apostrophe to bright being, especially love, and then there is an appeal to Ligeia, the essence of music, to wake all nature with her rhythmical numbers.

5. Dreams, visions, etc., collect, but there is death too, so the poet chooses Al Aaraaf, the place of blessed sorrow, with its luxury of grief. But there are two beings - a maiden angel and her seraph lover who for the beating of their own hearts hear not the song.

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6. The story of Angelo and Ianthe follows. Angelo sits with Ianthe but often looks at the Earth. He tells (7) of his death at Lemnos and his departure (8) from the Parthenon where beauty so crowds upon him that he wishes himself a man again.

9. Ianthe tells him that with her he has a brighter place where women and love are.

10. He tells how he came to Al Aaraaf with its increasing beauty (11).

12. The lovers fall because their own 'beating hearts cannot hear Heaven's hope.'

Part I. consists of Seven Divisions with one song and Part II. of Twelve Divisions with one song.

The meaning of this poem is not very clear, but perhaps Fruit is right in thinking Poe meant to teach that

beauty is to be placed above love, as in Tamerlane he taught that love was above ambition.

(ROMANCE.)

Page 40.

PHILADELPHIA SATURDAY MUSEUM, MARCH 4, 1843; 1845; BROADWAY JOURNAL, II., 8. 1829; Introduction, 1831.

Text, 1845.

Variations of 1829 from the text.

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Preface,

Line 1, who (o. c.) 2 wing, (o. c.) 4 lake, (o. c.) 9 lie, (o. c.) II. 2 Heaven (air) 41 idle (I hardly have had time for) 5 Through (Thro') 5 the (th') 5 sky. (!) 6 And (And,) 11 Unless it trembled tremble).

(Did it not

Variations of Broadway Journal from the text. Line 9 lie, (o. c.) II. 3 as (, as) 11 strings. (!).

The 1831 version is as follows :

INTRODUCTION.

Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet

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a most familiar bird

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Taught me my alphabet to say,
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild-wood I did lie
A child — with a most knowing eye

Succeeding years, too wild for song,
Then roll'd like tropic storms along,
Where, tho' the garish lights that fly,
Dying along the troubled sky
Lay bare, thro' vistas thunder-riven,
The blackness of the general Heaven,
That very blackness yet doth fling
Light on the lightning's silver wing.

For, being an idle boy lang syne,
Who read Anacreon, and drank wine,
I early found Anacreon rhymes
Were almost passionate sometimes
And by strange alchemy of brain
His pleasures always turn'd to pain
His naivete to wild desire-

His wit to love his wine to fire -
And so, being young and dipt in folly
I fell in love with melancholy,
And used to throw my earthly rest
And quiet all away in jest

-

I could not love except where Death
Was mingling his with Beauty's breath-
Or Hymen, Time, and Destiny
Were stalking between her and me.

O, then the eternal Condor years,
So shook the very Heavens on high,
With tumult as they thunder'd by ;
I had no time for idle cares,
Thro' gazing on the unquiet sky!
Or if an hour with calmer wing
Its down did on my spirit fling,
That little hour with lyre and rhyme
To while away- forbidden thing!
My heart half fear'd to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the string.

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