Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane” (Comparative Text - ATMP, ATMP-EH and RAOP)

 

Title: TAMERLANE.

 

Rule: {{1829-01; 1845-02: ———— //1845-03: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ }}

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 1 }}

 

Line-01-001: {{1829-01; 1845-02: Kind //1845-03: KIND }} solace in a dying hour! {{1829-01; 1845-02: — }}

Line-01-002: [[indented]] Such, father, is not (now) my theme —

Line-01-003: I will not madly deem that power

Line-01-004: [[indented]] Of Earth may shrive me of the sin

Line-01-005: [[indented]] Unearthly pride hath revell’d in —

Line-01-006: [[indented]] I have no time to dote or dream:

Line-01-007: You call it hope — that fire of fire!

Line-01-008: It is but agony of desire:

Line-01-009: If I can hope — Oh God! I can —

Line-01-010: [[indented]] Its fount is holier — more divine —

Line-01-011: I would not call thee fool, old man,

Line-01-012: [[indented]] But such is not a gift of thine.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 2 }}

 

Line-01-013: Know thou the secret of a spirit

Line-01-014: [[indented]] Bow’d from its wild pride into shame.

Line-01-015: O {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! }} yearning heart! I did inherit

Line-01-016: [[indented]] Thy withering portion with the fame,

Line-01-017: The searing glory which hath shone

Line-01-018: Amid the {{1829-01; 1845-02: jewels //1845-03: Jewels }} of my throne,

Line-01-019: Halo of Hell! and with a pain

Line-01-020: Not Hell shall make me fear again —

Line-01-021: O {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! }} craving heart, for the lost flowers

Line-01-022: And sunshine of my summer hours!

Line-01-023: {{1829-01; 1845-02: Th’ //1845-03: The }} undying voice of that dead time,

Line-01-024: With its interminable chime,

Line-01-025: Rings, in the spirit of a spell,

Line-01-026: Upon thy emptiness — a knell.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 3 }}

 

Line-01-027: I have not always been as now:

Line-01-028: The fever’d diadem on my brow

Line-01-029: [[indented]] I claim’d and won usurpingly ——

Line-01-030: Hath not the same fierce heirdom given

Line-01-031: [[indented]] Rome to the Caesar — this to me?

Line-01-032: [[indented]] The heritage of a kingly mind,

Line-01-033: And a proud spirit which hath striven

Line-01-034: [[indented]] Triumphantly with human kind.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 4 }}

 

Line-01-035: On mountain soil I first drew life:

Line-01-036: [[indented]] The mists of the Taglay have shed

Line-01-037: [[indented]] Nightly their dews upon my head,

Line-01-038: And, I believe, the winged strife

Line-01-039: And tumult of the headlong air

Line-01-040: Hath {{1829-01; 1845-02: nestl’d //1845-03: nestled }} in my very hair.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 5 }}

 

Line-01-041: So late from Heaven — that dew — it fell

Line-01-042: [[indented]] (’Mid dreams of an unholy night)

Line-01-043: {{1829-01: Upon //1845-02: on //1845-02: Upon }} me {{1829-01; 1845-02: — }} with the touch of Hell,

Line-01-044: [[indented]] While the red flashing of the light

Line-01-045: From clouds that hung, like banners, o’er,

Line-01-046: [[indented]] Appeared to my half-closing eye

Line-01-047: [[indented]] The pageantry of monarchy,

Line-01-048: And the deep trumpet-thunder's roar

Line-01-049: [[indented]] Came hurriedly upon me, telling

Line-01-050: [[indented]] Of human battle, where my voice,

Line-01-051: [[indented]] My own voice, silly child! — was swelling

Line-01-052: [[indented]] (O! how my spirit would rejoice,

Line-01-053: And leap within me at the cry)

Line-01-054: The battle-cry of Victory!

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 6 }}

 

Line-01-055: The rain came down upon my head

Line-01-056: [[indented]] Unshelter’d — and the heavy wind

Line-01-057: [[indented]] {{1829-01; 1845-02: Was giantlike — so thou, my mind! — //1845-03: Rendered me mad and deaf and blind. }}

Line-01-058: It was but man, I thought, who shed

Line-01-059: [[indented]] Laurels upon me: and the rush —

Line-01-060: The torrent of the chilly air

Line-01-061: Gurgled within my ear the crush

Line-01-062: [[indented]] Of empires — with the captive's prayer —

Line-01-063: The hum of suiters — and the tone

Line-01-064: Of flattery ’round a sovereign's throne.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 7 }}

 

Line-01-065: My passions, from that hapless hour,

Line-01-066: [[indented]] Usurp’d a tyranny which men

Line-01-067: Have deem’d, since I have reach’d to power {{1829-01; 1845-02: ; //1845-03: , }}

Line-01-068: [[indented]] My innate nature — be it so:

Line-01-069: [[indented]] But, father, there liv’d one who, then,

Line-01-070: Then — in my {{1829-01; 1845-02: boy-hood // 1845-03: boyhood }} — when their fire

Line-01-071: [[indented]] Burn’d with a still intenser glow {{1829-01; 1845-02: , }}

Line-01-072: (For passion must, with youth, expire)

Line-01-073: [[indented]] E’en then who knew this iron heart

Line-01-074: [[indented]] In woman's weakness had a part.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 8 }}

 

Line-01-075: I have no words — alas! — to tell

Line-01-076: The loveliness of loving well!

Line-01-077: Nor would I now attempt to trace

Line-01-078: The more than beauty of a face

Line-01-079: Whose lineaments, upon my mind,

Line-01-080: Are —— shadows on th’ unstable wind:

Line-01-081: Thus I remember having dwelt

Line-01-082: [[indented]] Some page of early lore upon,

Line-01-083: With loitering eye, till I have felt

Line-01-084: The letters — with their meaning — melt

Line-01-085: [[indented]] To fantasies — with none.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 9 }}

 

Line-01-086: O {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! //1845-03: , }} she was worthy of all love!

Line-01-087: [[indented]] Love — as in infancy was mine —

Line-01-088: ’Twas such as angel minds above

Line-01-089: [[indented]] Might envy; her young heart the shrine

Line-01-090: On which my ev’ry hope and thought

Line-01-091: [[indented]] Were incense — then a goodly gift,

Line-01-092: [[indented]] For they were childish {{1829-01; 1845-02: — }} and upright —

Line-01-093: Pure —— as her young example taught:

Line-01-094: [[indented]] Why did I leave it, and, adrift,

Line-01-095: [[indented]] Trust to the fire within, for light?

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 10 }}

 

Line-01-096: We grew in age — and love — together —

Line-01-097: [[indented]] Roaming the forest, and the wild;

Line-01-098: My breast her shield in wintry weather —

Line-01-099: [[indented]] And, when the friendly sunshine smil’d,

Line-01-100: And she would mark the opening skies,

Line-01-101: I saw no Heaven — but in her eyes.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 11 }}

 

Line-01-102: Young Love's first lesson is —— the heart:

Line-01-103: [[indented]] For 'mid that sunshine, and those smiles,

Line-01-104: When, from our little cares apart,

Line-01-105: [[indented]] And laughing at her girlish wiles,

Line-01-106: I’d throw me on her throbbing breast,

Line-01-107: [[indented]] And pour my spirit out in tears —

Line-01-107: There was no need to speak the rest —

Line-01-109: [[indented]] No need to quiet any fears

Line-01-110: Of her — who ask’d no reason why,

Line-01-111: But turn’d on me her quiet eye!

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 12 }}

 

Line-01-112: Yet more than worthy of the love

Line-01-113: My spirit struggled with, and strove,

Line-01-114: When, on the mountain peak, alone,

Line-01-115: Ambition lent it a new tone —

Line-01-116: I had no being — but in thee:

Line-01-117: [[indented]] The world, and all it did contain

Line-01-118: In the earth — the air — the sea —

Line-01-119: [[indented]] Its joy — its little lot of pain

Line-01-120: That was new pleasure —— the ideal,

Line-01-121: [[indented]] Dim, vanities of dreams by night —

Line-01-122: And dimmer nothings which were real —

Line-01-123: [[indented]] (Shadows — and a more shadowy light!)

Line-01-124: Parted upon their misty wings,

Line-01-125: [[indented]] And, so, confusedly, became

Line-01-126: [[indented]] Thine image and — a name — a name!

Line-01-127: Two separate — yet most intimate things.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 13 }}

 

Line-01-128: I was ambitious — have you known

Line-01-129: [[indented]] The passion, father? You have not:

Line-01-130: A cottager, I mark’d a throne

Line-01-131: Of half the world as all my own,

Line-01-132: [[indented]] And murmur’d at such lowly lot —

Line-01-133: But, just like any other dream,

Line-01-134: [[indented]] Upon the vapor of the dew

Line-01-135: My own had past, did not the beam

Line-01-136: [[indented]] Of {{1829-01; 1845-02: Beauty //1845-03: beauty }} which did while it thro’

Line-01-137: The minute — the hour — the day — oppress

Line-01-138: My mind with double loveliness.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01: 14 }}

 

Line-01-139: We walk’d together on the crown

Line-01-140: Of a high mountain which look’d down

Line-01-141: Afar from its proud natural towers

Line-01-142: [[indented]] Of rock and forest, on the hills —

Line-01-143: The dwindled hills! begirt with bowers

Line-01-144: [[indented]] And shouting with a thousand rills.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01: 15 }}

 

Line-01-145: I spoke to her of power and pride,

Line-01-146: [[indented]] But mystically — in such guise

Line-01-147: That she might deem it nought beside

Line-01-148: [[indented]] The moment's converse; in her eyes

Line-01-149: I read, perhaps too carelessly —

Line-01-150: [[indented]] A mingled feeling with my own —

Line-01-151: The flush on her bright cheek, to me

Line-01-152: [[indented]] Seem’d to become a queenly throne

Line-01-153: Too well that I should let it be

Line-01-154: [[indented]] Light in the wilderness alone.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01: 16 }}

 

Line-01-155: I wrapp’d myself in grandeur then,

Line-01-156: [[indented]] And donn’d a visionary crown ——

Line-01-157: [[indented]] Yet it was not that Fantasy

Line-01-158: [[indented]] Had thrown her mantle over me —

Line-01-159: But that, among the rabble — men,

Line-01-160: [[indented]] Lion ambition is chain’d down —

Line-01-161: And crouches to a keeper's hand —

Line-01-162: Not so in deserts where the grand {{1845-03: — }}

Line-01-163: The wild — the terrible conspire

Line-01-164: With their own breath to fan his fire.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 17 }}

 

Line-01-165: Look ’round thee now on Samarcand! —

Line-01-166: [[indented]] Is she not queen of Earth? her pride

Line-01-167: Above all cities? in her hand

Line-01-158: [[indented]] Their destinies? in all beside

Line-01-169: Of glory which the world hath known

Line-01-170: Stands she not nobly and alone?

Line-01-171: Falling — her veriest stepping-stone

Line-01-172: Shall form the pedestal of a throne —

Line-01-173: And who her sovereign? Timour — he

Line-01-174: [[indented]] Whom the astonished people saw

Line-01-175: Striding o’er empires haughtily

Line-01-176: [[indented]] A diadem’d outlaw {{1829-01; 1845-02: — //1845-03: ! }}

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 18 }}

 

Line-01-177: O {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! //1845-03: , }} human love! thou spirit given,

Line-01-178: On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!

Line-01-179: Which fall'st into the soul like rain

Line-01-180: Upon the Siroc wither’d plain,

Line-01-181: And failing in thy power to bless {{1845-03: , }}

Line-01-182: But leav'st the heart a wilderness!

Line-01-183: Idea! which bindest life around

Line-01-184: With music of so strange a sound

Line-01-185: And beauty of so wild a birth —

Line-01-186: Farewell! for I have won the Earth {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! // 1845-03: . }}

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 19 }}

 

Line-01-187: When Hope, the eagle that tower’d, could see

Line-01-188: [[indented]] No cliff beyond him in the sky,

Line-01-189: His pinions were bent droopingly —

Line-01-190: [[indented]] And homeward turn’d his soften’d eye.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01: 20 //1845-02: [[marked for lines to be merged with previous stanza]] //1845-03: [[lines merged, as indicated]] }}

 

Line-01-191: ’Twas sunset: when the sun will part

Line-01-192: There comes a sullenness of heart

Line-01-193: To him who still would look upon

Line-01-194: The glory of the summer sun.

Line-01-195: That soul will hate the ev’ning mist

Line-01-196: So often lovely, and will list

Line-01-197: To the sound of the coming darkness (known

Line-01-198: To those whose spirits harken) as one

Line-01-199: Who, in a dream of night, would fly

Line-01-200: But cannot from a danger nigh.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 21 }}

 

Line-01-201: What tho’ the moon — the white moon

Line-01-202: Shed all the splendor of her noon,

Line-01-203: Her smile is chilly — and her beam,

Line-01-204: In that time of dreariness, will seem

Line-01-205: (So like you gather in your breath)

Line-01-206: A portrait taken after death.

Line-01-207: And boyhood is a summer sun

Line-01-208: Whose waning is the dreariest one —

Line-01-209: For all we live to know is known

Line-01-210: And all we seek to keep hath flown —

Line-01-211: Let life, then, as the day-flower, fall

Line-01-212: With the noon-day beauty — which is all.

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 22 }}

 

Line-01-213: I reach’d my home — my home no more —

Line-01-214: [[indented]] For all had flown who made it so {{1829-01; 1845-02: — //1845-03: . }}

Line-01-215: I pass’d from out its mossy door,

Line-01-216: [[indented]] And, tho’ my tread was soft and low,

Line-01-217: A voice came from the threshold stone

Line-01-218: Of one whom I had earlier known —

Line-01-219: [[indented]] O {{1829-01; 1845-02: ! //1845-03: , }} I defy thee, Hell, to show

Line-01-220: [[indented]] On beds of fire that burn below,

Line-01-221: [[indented]] A humbler heart — a deeper wo {{1829-01; 1845-02: — //1845-03: . }}

 

Stanza: {{1829-01; 1845-02: 23 }}

 

Line-01-222: Father, I firmly do believe —

Line-01-223: [[indented]] I know — for Death {{1829-01; 1845-02: — }} who comes for me

Line-01-224: [[indented]] From regions of the blest afar,

Line-01-225: Where there is nothing to deceive,

Line-01-226: [[indented]] Hath left his iron gate ajar,

Line-01-227: [[indented]] And rays of truth you cannot see

Line-01-228: [[indented]] Are flashing thro’ Eternity ——

Line-01-229: I do believe that Eblis hath

Line-01-230: A snare in {{1829-01; 1845-02: ev’ry //1845-03: every }} human path —

Line-01-231: Else how, when in the holy grove

Line-01-232: I wandered of the idol, Love,

Line-01-233: Who daily scents his snowy wings

Line-01-234: With incense of burnt offerings

Line-01-235: From the most unpolluted things,

Line-01-236: Whose pleasant bowers are yet so riven

Line-01-237: Above with {{1829-01; 1845-02: trelliced //1845-03: trellic’d }} rays from Heaven

Line-01-238: No mote may shun — no tiniest fly {{1845-03: — }}

Line-01-239: The light’ning of his eagle eye —

Line-01-240: How was it that Ambition crept,

Line-01-241: [[indented]] Unseen, amid the revels there,

Line-01-242: Till growing bold, he laughed and leapt

Line-01-243: [[indented]] In the tangles of Love's very hair?