Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Al Aaraaf” (Study Text - ATMP-EH)

 

[page 13, unnumbered:]

 

Title: AL AARAAF.

 

Stanza: Part I.

 

Line-01-001: O! NOTHING earthly save the ray

Line-01-002: [Thrown back from flowers] of Beauty's eye,

Line-01-003: As in those gardens where the day

Line-01-004: Springs from the gems of Circassy —

Line-01-005: O! nothing earthly save the thrill

Line-01-006: Of melody in woodland rill —

Line-01-007: Or [music of the passion-hearted]

Line-01-008: Joy's voice so peacefully departed

Line-01-009: That like the murmur in the shell,

Line-01-010: Its echo dwelleth and will dwell —

Line-01-011: {{1829-01: With //1845-02: Ah! }} nothing of the dross of ours —

Line-01-012: Yet all the beauty — all the flowers

Line-01-013: That list our Love, and deck our bowers

Line-01-014: Adorn yon world afar, afar —

Line-01-015: The {{1829-01; 1845-02: wandering //1845-03: Messenger }} star — [page 14:]

Line-01-016: [[indented]] ’Twas a sweet time for Nesace — for there

Line-01-017: Her world lay lolling on the golden air,

Line-01-018: Near four bright suns — a temporary rest —

Line-01-019: {{1829-01: A garden-spot //1845-02: An oasis }} A garden-spot in desert of the blest.

 

Line-01-020: [[indented]] Away — away — mid [['mid]] seas of rays that roll

Line-01-021: Empyrean splendor o’er th’ unchained soul —

Line-01-022: The soul that scarce [the billows are so dense]

Line-01-023: Can struggle to its destin’d eminence —

Line-01-024: To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,

Line-01-025: And late to ours, the favour’d one of God —

Line-01-026: But, now, the ruler of an anchor’d realm,

Line-01-027: She throws aside the sceptre — leaves the helm,

Line-01-028: And, amid incense, and high spiritual hymns,

Line-01-029: Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.

 

Line-01-030: [[indented]] Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,

Line-01-031: Whence sprang the “Idea of Beauty” into birth.

Line-01-032: [Falling in wreaths thro’ many a startled star,

Line-01-033: Like woman's hair 'mid pearls, until, afar,

Line-01-034: It lit on hills Archaian, and there dwelt]

Line-01-035: She look’d into Infinity — and knelt.

Line-01-036: Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled —

Line-01-037: Fit emblems of the model of her world — [page 15:]

Line-01-038: Seen but in beauty — not impeding sight

Line-01-039: Of other beauty glittering thro’ the light —

Line-01-040: A wreath that twined each starry form around,

Line-01-041: And all the opal’d air in colour bound.

 

Line-01-042: [[indented]] All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed

Line-01-043: Of flowers: of lilies such as rear the head

Line-01-044: * On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang

Line-01-045: So eagerly around about to hang

Line-01-046: Upon the flying footsteps of —— deep pride —

Line-01-047: † Of her who lov’d a mortal — and so died —

Line-01-048: The Sephalica, budding with young bees,

Line-01-049: Uprear’d its purple stem around her knees —

Line-01-050: ‡ And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnamed —

Line-01-051: Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham’d

Line-01-052: All other loveliness: its honied dew

Line-01-053: [The fabled nectar that the heathen knew]

Line-01-054: Deliriously sweet, was dropp’d from Heaven,

Line-01-055: And fell on gardens of the unforgiven

Line-01-056: In Trebizond — and on a sunny flower

Line-01-057: So like its own above that, to this hour, [page 16:]

Line-01-058: It still remaineth torturing the bee

Line-01-059: With madness, and unwonted reverie —

Line-01-060: In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf

Line-01-061: And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief

Line-01-062: Disconsolate linger — grief that hangs her head,

Line-01-063: Repenting follies that full long have fled,

Line-01-064: Heaving her white breast to the balmy air

Line-01-065: Like guilty beauty, chasten’d, and more fair —

Line-01-066: Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light

Line-01-067: She fears to perfume, perfuming the night —

Line-01-068: * And Clytia pondering between many a sun,

Line-01-069: While pettish tears adown her petals run —

Line-01-070: † And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth —

Line-01-071: And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,

Line-01-072: Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing

Line-01-073: Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king — [page 17:]

Line-01-074: * And Valisnerian lotus thither flown

Line-01-075: From struggling with the waters of the Rhone —

Line-01-076: † And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!

Line-01-077: I sola d’oro! — Fior di Levante! —

Line-01-078: ‡ And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever

Line-01-079: With Indian Cupid down the holy river —

Line-01-080: Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given

Line-01-081: § To bear the Goddess’ song, in odours, up to Heaven —

 

[[section indented]]

Line-01-082: “Spirit! that dwellest where,

Line-01-083: [[indented]] In the deep sky,

Line-01-084: The terrible and fair,

Line-01-085: [[indented]] In beauty vie!

Line-01-086: Beyond the line of blue —

Line-01-087: [[indented]] The boundary of the star

Line-01-088: Which turneth at the view

Line-01-089: [[indented]] Of thy barrier and thy bar —

Line-01-090: Of the barrier overgone [page 18:]

Line-01-091: [[indented]] By the comets who were cast

Line-01-092: From their pride, and from their throne

Line-01-093: [[indented]] To be drudges till the last —

Line-01-094: To be carriers of fire

Line-01-095: [[indented]] [The red fire of their heart]

Line-01-096: With speed that may not tire

Line-01-097: [[indented]] And with pain that shall not part —

Line-01-098: Who livest — that we know —

Line-01-099: [[indented]] In Eternity — we feel —

Line-01-100: But the shadow of whose brow

Line-01-101: [[indented]] What spirit shall reveal?

Line-01-102: Tho’ the beings whom thy Nesace,

Line-01-103: [[indented]] Thy messenger hath known

Line-01-104: Have dream’d for thy Infinity

Line-01-105: [[indented]] * A model of their own — [page 19:]

Line-01-106: Thy will is done, O! God!

Line-01-107: [[indented]] The star hath ridden high

Line-01-108: Thro’ many a tempest, but she rode

Line-01-109: [[indented]] Beneath thy burning eye

Line-01-110: And here, in thought, to thee —

Line-01-111: [[indented]] In thought that can alone

Line-01-112: Ascend thy empire and so be

Line-01-113: [[indented]] A partner of thy throne

Line-01-114: * By winged Fantasy,

Line-01-115: [[indented]] My embassy is given

Line-01-116: Till secrecy shall knowledge be

Line-01-117: [[indented]] In the environs of Heaven.”

[[end indented section]]

 

Line-01-118: She ceas’d — and buried then her burning cheek

Line-01-119: Abash’d, amid the lilies there, to seek

Line-01-120: A shelter from the fervor of his eye

Line-01-121: For the stars trembled at the Deity. [page 20:]

Line-01-122: She stirr’d not — breath’d not — for a voice was there

Line-01-123: How solemnly pervading the calm air

Line-01-124: A sound of silence on the startled ear

Line-01-125: Which dreamy poets name “the music of the sphere.”

Line-01-126: Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call

Line-01-127: “Silence” — which is the merest word of all —

Line-01-128: Here Nature speaks, and ev’n ideal things

Line-01-129: Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings —

Line-01-130: But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high

Line-01-131: The eternal voice of God is passing by,

Line-01-132: And the red winds are withering in the sky!

Line-01-133: * “What tho’ in worlds which sightless Cycles run

Line-01-134: Link’d to a little system, and one sun

Line-01-135: Where all my love is folly and the crowd

Line-01-136: Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud

Line-01-137: The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath —

Line-01-138: [Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?]

Line-01-139: What tho’ in worlds which own a single sun

Line-01-140: The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run

Line-01-141: Yet thine is my resplendency, so given

Line-01-142: To bear my secrets thro’ the upper Heaven:

Line-01-143: Leave tenantless thy chrystal home, and fly, [page 21:]

Line-01-144: With all thy train, athwart the moony sky —

Line-01-145: * Apart — like fire-flies in Sicilian night,

Line-01-146: And wing to other worlds another light;

Line-01-147: Divulge the secrets of thy embassy

Line-01-148: To the proud orbs that twinkle — and so be

Line-01-149: To ev’ry heart a barrier and a ban

Line-01-150: Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man.”

 

Line-01-151: [[indented]] Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,

Line-01-152: The single-mooned eve! on Earth we plight

Line-01-153: Our faith to one love — and one moon adore —

Line-01-154: The birth-place of young Beauty had no more.

Line-01-155: As sprang that yellow star from downy hours

Line-01-156: Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,

Line-01-157: And bent o’er sheeny mountain and dim plain

Line-01-158: † Her way — but left not yet her Therasæan reign.

 

 

 

[page 25, unnumbered:]

 

Title: AL AARAAF.

 

Stanza: Part II.

 

Line-01-159: HIGH on a mountain of enamell’d head —

Line-01-160: Such as the drowsy shepherd on his bed

Line-01-161: Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,

Line-01-162: Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees

Line-01-163: With many a mutter’d “hope to be forgiven”

Line-01-164: What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven —

Line-01-165: Of rosy head that, towering far away

Line-01-166: Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray

Line-01-167: Of sunken suns at eve — at noon of night,

Line-01-168: While the moon danc’d with the fair stranger light —

Line-01-169: Uprear’d upon such height arose a pile

Line-01-170: Of gorgeous columns on th’ unburthen’d air,

Line-01-171: Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile

Line-01-172: Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,

Line-01-173: And nursled the young mountain in its lair:

Line-01-174: *Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall

Line-01-175: Thro’ the ebon air, besilvering the pall [page 26:]

Line-01-176: Of their own dissolution, while they die —

Line-01-177: Adorning then the dwellings of the sky:

Line-01-178: A dome, by linked light from Heaven let down,

Line-01-179: Sat gently on these columns as a crown —

Line-01-180: A window of one circular diamond, there,

Line-01-181: Look’d out above into the purple air,

Line-01-182: And rays from God shot down that meteor chain

Line-01-183: And hallow’d all the beauty twice again,

Line-01-184: Save when, between th’ Empyrean and that ring,

Line-01-185: Some eager spirit flapp’d his dusky wing:

Line-01-186: But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen

Line-01-187: The dimness of this world: that greyish green

Line-01-188: That Nature loves the best for Beauty's grave

Line-01-189: Lurk’d in each cornice, round each architrave —

Line-01-190: And ev’ry sculptur’d cherub thereabout

Line-01-191: That, from his marble dwelling ventur’d out

Line-01-192: Seem’d earthly in the shallow of his niche —

Line-01-193: Archaian statues in a world so rich?

Line-01-194: *Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis —

Line-01-195: From Balbec, and {{1829-01: the //1845-02: thy }} stilly, clear abyss [page 27:]

Line-01-196: * {{1829-01: Of //1845-02: Too }} beautiful Gomorrah! O! the wave

Line-01-197: Is now upon thee — but too late to save! —

 

Line-01-198: [[indented]] Sound loves to revel {{1829-01: near // 1845-02: in }} a summer night:

Line-01-199: Witness the murmur of the grey twilight

Line-01-200: †That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,

Line-01-201: Of many a wild star-gazer long ago —

Line-01-202: That stealeth ever on the ear of him

Line-01-203: Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim,

Line-01-204: And sees the darkness coming as a cloud —

Line-01-205: ‡Is not its form — its voice — most palpable and loud?

 

Line-01-206: [[indented]] But what is this? — it cometh — and it brings

Line-01-207: A music with it —'tis the rush of wings —

Line-01-208: A pause — and then a sweeping, falling strain

Line-01-209: And Nesace is in her halls again: [page 28:]

Line-01-210: From the wild energy of wanton haste

Line-01-211: [[indented]] Her cheek was flushing, and her lips apart;

Line-01-212: And zone that clung around her gentle waist

Line-01-213: [[indented]] Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart:

Line-01-214: Within the centre of that hall to breathe

Line-01-215: She paus’d and panted, Zanthe! all beneath —

Line-01-216: The fairy light that kiss’d her golden hair

Line-01-217: And long’d to rest, yet could but sparkle there!

 

Line-01-218: [[indented]] *Young flowers were whispering in melody

Line-01-219: To happy flowers that night — and tree to tree;

Line-01-220: Fountains were gushing music as they fell

Line-01-221: In many a star-lit grove, or moon-lit dell;

Line-01-222: Yet silence came upon material things —

Line-01-223: Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings —

Line-01-224: And sound alone that from the spirit sprang

Line-01-225: Bore burthen to the charm the maiden sang.

 

[[section indented]]

Line-01-226: “ ’Neath blue-bell or streamer —

Line-01-227: [[indented]] Or tufted wild spray

Line-01-228: That keeps, from the dreamer,

Line-01-229: [[indented]] †The moonbeam away — [page 29:]

Line-01-230: Bright beings! that ponder,

Line-01-231: [[indented]] With half closing eyes,

Line-01-232: On the stars which your wonder

Line-01-233: [[indented]] Hath drawn from the skies,

Line-01-234: Till they glance thro’ the shade, and

Line-01-235: [[indented]] Come down to your brow

Line-01-236: Like —— eyes of the maiden

Line-01-237: [[indented]] Who calls on you now —

Line-01-238: Arise! from your dreaming

Line-01-239: [[indented]] In violet bowers,

Line-01-240: To duty beseeming

Line-01-241: [[indented]] These star-litten hours —

Line-01-242: And shake from your tresses

Line-01-243: [[indented]] Encumber’d with dew

Line-01-244: The breath of those kisses

Line-01-245: [[indented]] That cumber them too —

Line-01-246: [O! how, without you, Love!

Line-01-247: [[indented]] could angels be blest]?

Line-01-248: Those kisses of true love

Line-01-249: [[indented]] That lull’d ye to rest:

Line-01-250: Up! — shake from your wing

Line-01-251: [[indented]] Each hindering thing: [page 30:]

Line-01-252: The dew of the night —

Line-01-253: [[indented]] It would weigh down your flight;

Line-01-254: And true love caresses —

Line-01-255: [[indented]] O! leave them apart,

Line-01-256: They are light on the tresses,

Line-01-257: [[indented]] But hang on the heart.

 

Line-01-258: Ligeia! Ligeia!

Line-01-259: [[indented]] My beautiful one!

Line-01-260: Whose harshest idea

Line-01-261: [[indented]] Will to melody run,

Line-01-262: O! is it thy will

Line-01-263: [[indented]] On the breezes to toss?

Line-01-264: Or, capriciously still,

Line-01-265: [[indented]] * Like the lone Albatross,

Line-01-266: Incumbent on night

Line-01-267: [[indented]] [As she on the air]

Line-01-268: To keep watch with delight

Line-01-269: [[indented]] On the harmony there?

 

Line-01-270: Ligeia! wherever

Line-01-271: [[indented]] Thy image may be [page 31:]

Line-01-272: No magic shall sever

Line-01-273: [[indented]] Thy music from thee:

Line-01-274: Thou hast bound many eyes

Line-01-275: [[indented]] In a dreamy sleep —

Line-01-276: But the strains still arise

Line-01-277: [[indented]] Which thy vigilance keep —

Line-01-278: The sound of the rain

Line-01-279: [[indented]] Which leaps down to the flower,

Line-01-280: And dances again

Line-01-281: [[indented]] In the rhythm of the shower —

Line-01-282: * The murmur that springs

Line-01-283: [[indented]] From the growing of grass

Line-01-284: Are the music of things —

Line-01-285: [[indented]] But are modell’d, alas! —

Line-01-286: Away, then my dearest,

Line-01-287: [[indented]] O! hie thee away

Line-01-288: To springs that lie clearest

Line-01-289: [[indented]] Beneath the moon ray — [page 32:]

Line-01-290: To lone lake that smiles,

Line-01-291: [[indented]] In its dream of deep rest,

Line-01-292: At the many star-isles

Line-01-293: [[indented]] That enjewel its breast —

Line-01-294: Where wild flowers, creeping,

Line-01-295: [[indented]] Have mingled their shade,

Line-01-296: On its margin is sleeping

Line-01-297: [[indented]] Full many a maid —

Line-01-298: Some have left the cool glade, and

Line-01-299: [[indented]] * Have slept with the bee —

Line-01-300: Arouse them my maiden,

Line-01-301: [[indented]] On moorland and lea —

Line-01-302: Go! breathe on their slumber,

Line-01-303: [[indented]] All softly in ear,

Line-01-304: The musical number

Line-01-305: [[indented]] They slumber’d to hear —

Line-01-306: For what can awaken

Line-01-307: [[indented]] An angel so soon [page 33:]

Line-01-308: Whose sleep hath been taken

Line-01-309: [[indented]] Beneath the cold moon

Line-01-310: As the spell which no slumber

Line-01-311: [[indented]] Of witchery may test,

Line-01-312: The rythmical number

Line-01-313: [[indented]] Which lull’d him to rest?”

[[end indented section]]

 

Line-01-314: Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,

Line-01-315: A thousand seraphs burst th’ Empyrean thro’,

Line-01-316: Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight —

Line-01-317: Seraphs in all but “Knowledge,” the keen light

Line-01-318: That fell, refracted, thro’ thy bounds, afar

Line-01-319: O! Death! from eye of God upon that star:

Line-01-320: Sweet was that error — sweeter still that death —

Line-01-321: Sweet was that error — ev’n with us the breath

Line-01-322: Of science dims the mirror of our joy —

Line-01-323: To them’twere the Simoom, and would destroy —

Line-01-324: For what [to them] availeth it to know

Line-01-325: That Truth is Falsehood — or that Bliss is Woe?

Line-01-326: Sweet was their death — with them to die was rife

Line-01-327: With the last extacy of satiate life —

Line-01-328: Beyond that death no immortality —

Line-01-329: But sleep that pondereth and is not “to be” — [page 34:]

Line-01-330: And there — oh! may my weary spirit dwell —

Line-01-331: *Apart from Heaven's Eternity — and yet how far from Hell!

Line-01-332: What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,

Line-01-333: Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?

Line-01-334: But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts

Line-01-335: To those who hear not for their beating hearts.

Line-01-336: A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover —

Line-01-337: O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)

Line-01-338: Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?

Line-01-339: †Unguided Love hath fallen —'mid “tears of perfect moan:” [page 35:]

 

Line-01-340: He was a goodly spirit — he who fell:

Line-01-341: A wanderer by mossy mantled well —

Line-01-342: A gazer on the lights that shine above —

Line-01-343: A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love:

Line-01-344: What wonder? for each star is eye-like there,

Line-01-345: And looks so sweetly down on Beauty's hair —

Line-01-346: And they, and ev’ry mossy spring were holy

Line-01-347: To his love haunted heart and melancholy.

Line-01-348: The night had found (to him a night of wo)

Line-01-349: Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo —

Line-01-350: Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,

Line-01-351: And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.

Line-01-352: Here sate he with his love — his dark eye bent

Line-01-353: With eagle gaze along the firmament:

Line-01-354: Now turn’d it upon her — but ever then

Line-01-355: It trembled to one constant star again.

Line-01-356: “Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!

Line-01-357: How lovely 'tis to look so far away!

Line-01-358: She seem’d not thus upon that autumn eve

Line-01-359: I left her gorgeous halls — nor mourn’d to leave:

Line-01-360: That eve — that eve — I should remember well —

Line-01-361: The sun-ray dropp’d, in Lemnos, with a spell [page 36:]

Line-01-362: On th’ ‘Arabesq’ carving of a gilded hall

Line-01-363: Wherein I sate, and on the drapried wall —

Line-01-364: And on my eye lids — O! the heavy light!

Line-01-365: How drowsily it weigh’d them into night!

Line-01-366: On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran

Line-01-367: With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:

Line-01-368: But O! that light! — I slumber’d — Death, the while,

Line-01-369: Stole o’er my senses in that lovely isle

Line-01-370: So softly that no single silken hair

Line-01-371: Awoke that slept — or knew that it was there.

 

Line-01-372: The last spot of Earth's orb I trod upon

Line-01-373: * Was a proud temple call’d the Parthenon —

Line-01-374: More beauty clung around her column’d wall

Line-01-375: †Than ev’n thy glowing bosom beats withal,

Line-01-376: And when old Time my wing did disenthral

Line-01-377: Thence sprang I — as the eagle from his tower,

Line-01-378: And years I left behind me in an hour.

Line-01-379: What time upon her airy bounds I hung

Line-01-380: One half the garden of her globe was flung [page 37:]

Line-01-381: Unrolling as a chart unto my view —

Line-01-382: Tenantless cities of the desert too!

Line-01-383: Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then,

Line-01-384: And half I wish’d to be again of men.

 

Line-01-385: “My Angelo! and why of them to be?

Line-01-386: A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee —

Line-01-387: And greener fields than in yon world above,

Line-01-388: And women's loveliness — and passionate love.

 

Line-01-389: “But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft

Line-01-390: *Fail’d, as my pennon’d spirit leapt aloft,

Line-01-391: Perhaps my brain grew dizzy — but the world

Line-01-392: I left so late was into chaos hurl’d —

Line-01-393: Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,

Line-01-394: And roll’d, a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.

Line-01-395: Methought, my sweet one, then I ceas’d to soar

Line-01-396: And fell — not swiftly as I rose before,

Line-01-397: But with a downward, tremulous motion thro’

Line-01-398: Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!

Line-01-399: Nor long the measure of my falling hours,

Line-01-400: For nearest of all stars was thine to ours — [page 38:]

Line-01-401: Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,

Line-01-402: A red Dædalion on the timid Earth!

Line-01-403: “We came — and to thy Earth — but not to us

Line-01-404: Be given our lady's bidding to discuss:

Line-01-405: We came, my love; around, above, below,

Line-01-406: Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,

Line-01-407: Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod

Line-01-408: She grants to us, as granted by her God —

Line-01-409: But, Angelo, than thine grey Time unfurl’d

Line-01-410: Never his fairy wing o’er fairier world!

Line-01-411: Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes

Line-01-412: Alone could see the phantom in the skies,

Line-01-413: When first {{1829-01; 1845-01: Al Aaraaf //1845-03: Tophet-Nour }} knew her course to be

Line-01-414: Headlong thitherward o’er the starry sea —

Line-01-415: But when its glory swell’d upon the sky,

Line-01-416: As glowing Beauty's bust beneath man's eye,

Line-01-417: We paus’d before the heritage of men,

Line-01-418: And thy star trembled — as doth Beauty's then!”

Line-01-419: Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away

Line-01-420: The night that waned and waned and brought no day

Line-01-421: They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts

Line-01-422: Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.

[[Footnotes]]

[The following footnotes appear between lines 44 and 50:]

*On Santa Maura — olim Deucadia.

†Sappho.

‡This flower is much noticed by Lewehoeck and Tournefort. The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 68 and 70:]

*Clytia — The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ a better-known term — the turnsol which turns continually towards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country from which it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh its flowers during the most violent heat of the day. — B. de. St. Pierre.

†There is cultivated in the king's garden at Paris, a species of serpentine aloes without prickles, whose large and beautiful flower exhales a strong odour of the vanilla, during the time of its expansion, which is very short — It does not blow till towards the month of July — you then perceive it gradually open its petals — expand them — fade and die. — St. Pierre.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 74 and 81:]

* There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet — thus preserving its head above water in the swellings of the river.

† The Hyacinth.

‡ 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.

§ And golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints. — Rev. St. John.

[The following footnote appears at line 105:]

*The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as having really a human form. — Vide Clarke's Sermons, vol. 1, page 26, fol. edit.

The drift of Milton's argument, leads him to employ language which would appear, at first sight, to verge upon their doctrine; but it will be seen immediately, that he guards himself against the charge of having adopted one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the church. — Dr. Sumner's Notes on Milton's Christian Doctrine.

This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary, could never have been very general. Andeus, a Syrian of Messopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the 4th century. His disciples were called Anthropmorphites. — Vide Du Pin.

Among Milton's poems are these lines: —

[The following footnote appears at line 114:]

[The following footnote appears at line 133:]

*Sightless — too small to be seen. — Legge.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 145 and 158:]

*I have often noticed a peculiar movement of the fire-fly — They will collect in a body and fly off, from a common centre into innumerable radii.

†Therasæa, or Therasea, the island mentioned by Seneca, which, in a moment, arose from the sea to the eyes of astonished mariners.

[The following footnotes appear at line 174:]

[The following footnotes appear at line 194:]

* Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, “Je conmois bien l’admiration qu’inspirent ces ruines — mais un palais erige au pied du’ne chaine des rochers sterils — peut il etre un chef doevure des arts!” — Voila les arguments de M. Voltaire.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 196 and 205:]

†[[*]] “Oh! the wave” — Ula Deguisi is the Turkish appellation; but, on its own shores, it is called Bahar Loth, or Almotanah. There were undoubtedly more than two cities engluphed in the “dead sea.” In the valley of Siddim were five — Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah. Stephen of Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo thirteeen, (engulphed) — but the last is out of all reason.

It is said, [Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, Nau, Maundrell, Troilo, D’Arvieux] that, after an excessive drought, the vestiges of columns, walls, &c. are seen above the surface. At any season, such remains may be discoverd by looking down into the transparent lake, and at such distances as would argue the existence of many settlements in the space now usurped by the “Asphaltites.”

†Eyraco — Chaldea.

‡I have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon.

[The following footnotes appear at the lines 218 and 229:]

*Fairies use flowers for their charactery. — Merry Wives of Windsor. [[William Shakespeare]]

†In Scripture is this passage — “The sun shall not harm thee by day, nor the moon by night.” It is, perhaps, not generally known that the moon, in Egypt, has the effect of producing blindness to those who sleep with the face exposed to its rays, to which circumstance the passage evidently alludes.

[The following footnotes appear at line 265:]

*The Albatross is said to sleep on the wing.

[The following footnotes appear at line 282:]

*I met with this idea in an old English tale, which I am now unable to obtain and quote from memory: — “The verie essence and, as it were, springe-heade, and origine of all musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of the forest do make when they growe.”

[The following footnotes appear at line 299:]

*The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be moonlight.

The rhyme in this verse, as in one about 60 lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud Halcro — in whose mouth I admired its effect.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 331 and 339:]

*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 heavenly enjoyment.

Sorrow is not excluded from “Al Aaraaf,” but it is that sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some minds, resembles the delirium of opium. The passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures — the price of which, to those souls who make choice of “Al Aaraaf” as their residence after life, is final death and annihilation.

[The following footnotes appear between lines 373 and 375:]

*It was entire in 1687 — the most elevated spot in Athens.

[The following footnotes appear at line 390:]

*Pennon — for pinion. — Milton.