Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Lenore” (Comparative Text - Pioneer and Saturday Museum)


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Texts Represented:

  • 1843-01 - Pioneer (February 1843)
  • 1843-02 - Saturday Museum (February 25 and March 4, 1843)

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Title: LENORE.

{{1843-01:

——

Byline: BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

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}}

Line-01-001: {{1843-01: AH //1843-02: Ah }} , broken is the golden bowl!

Line-01-002: [[indented]] The spirit flown forever!

Line-01-003: Let the bell toll! {{1843-01://1843-02: [[new line]] }} A saintly soul

Line-01-004: [[indented]] {{1843-01: Glides down //1843-02: Floats on }} the Stygian river!

Line-01-005: [[indented]] And let the burial rite be read {{1843-02: ! }}

Line-01-006: [[indented]] The funeral song be sung —

Line-01-007: [[indented]] A dirge for the most lovely dead

Line-01-008: [[indented]] That ever died so young!

Line-01-009: [[indented]] And, Guy De Vere,

Line-01-010: [[indented]] Hast thou no tear?

Line-01-011: [[indented]] Weep now or nevermore!

Line-01-012: [[indented]] See {{1843-01: , //1843-02: ! }} on yon drear

Line-01-013: [[indented]] And rigid bier {{1843-01: , }}

Line-01-014: [[indented]] Low lies thy love {{1843-02: , }} Lenore!

Line-01-015: “Yon heir, whose cheeks of pallid hue

Line-01-016: [[indented]] With tears are streaming wet,

Line-01-017: Sees only, through

Line-01-018: Their crocodile dew,

Line-01-019: [[indented]] A vacant coronet —

Line-01-020: [[indented]] False friends! ye {{1843-01: loved // 1843-02: lov’d }} her for her wealth {{1843-02: , }}

Line-01-021: [[indented]] And hated her for her pride,

Line-01-022: [[indented]] And, when she fell in feeble health,

Line-01-023: [[indented]] Ye {{1843-01: blessed //1843-02: bless’d }} her — that she died.

Line-01-024: [[indented]] How shall the ritual, then, be read?

Line-01-025: [[indented]] The requiem {{1843-01: how //1843-02: how }} be sung

Line-01-026: [[indented]] For her most wrong’d of all the dead

Line-01-027: [[indented]] That ever died so young?”

Line-01-028: Peccavimus {{1843-01: ! //1843-02: ; }}

Line-01-029: But rave not thus!

Line-01-030: [[indented]] And let the solemn song

Line-01-031: Go up to God so mournfully that she {{1843-02: [[new line]] }} may feel no wrong!

Line-01-032: [[indented]] The sweet Lenore

Line-01-033: [[indented]] Hath “gone before”

Line-01-034: [[indented]] With young hope at her side,

Line-01-035: [[indented]] And thou art wild

Line-01-036: [[indented]] For the dear child

Line-01-037: [[indented]] That should have been thy bride —

Line-01-038: [[indented]] For her, the fair

Line-01-039: [[indented]] And debonair,

Line-01-040: [[indented]] That now so lowly lies —

Line-01-041: [[indented]] The life still there {{1843-02: , }}

Line-01-042: [[indented]] Upon her hair,

Line-01-043: [[indented]] The death upon her eyes.

Line-01-044: “Avaunt {{1843-01: ! }} — to-night

Line-01-045: My heart is light —

Line-01-046: [[indented]] No dirge will I upraise,

Line-01-047: But waft the angel on her flight

Line-01-048: [[indented]] With a {{1843-01: Pæan //1843-02: Pœan [[Pæan]] }} of old days!

Line-01-049: [[indented]] Let no bell toll!

Line-01-050: [[indented]] Lest her sweet soul,

Line-01-051: [[indented]] Amid its hallow’d mirth {{1843-01: , }}

Line-01-052: [[indented]] Should catch the note {{1843-02: , }}

Line-01-053: [[indented]] As it doth float

Line-01-054: [[indented]] Up from the {{1843-01: damned //1843-02: damnéd }} earth —

Line-01-055: [[indented]] To friends above, from fiends below, th’ {{1843-02: [[new line]] }} indignant ghost is riven —

Line-01-056: [[indented]] From grief and moan

Line-01-057: [[indented]] To a gold throne

Line-01-058: [[indented]] Beside the King of Heaven {{1843-01: ?[[!]]” //1843-02: ![[”]] }}

 


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Notes:

For an explanation of the formatting used in this Comparative Text, see editorial policies and methods. This format is very much an experiment, particularly for poetry.

Because these changes reflect two different printed texts, pagination has been omitted in the present text.

Many of the formatting changes appear to have been made for the sake of fitting the narrow newspaper columns of the Saturday Museum. For the next text, Poe would make the even more radical change of using a longer line format.


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[S:0 - comparative] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Lenore (Comparative Text - Pioneer and PSM)