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The poem is obviously early, and in a Byronic mood. Killis Campbell (Poems, pp. 157-158) cites two passages possibly reflected: “The Dream,” I, 19-21,
... The mind can make
Substance, and people planets of its own
With beings brighter than have been ...
and Childe Harold, III, xiv, 1-3, [page 68:]
Like the Chaldean, he could watch the stars,
Till he had peopled them with beings bright
As their own beams ...
also connected with lines 6-7 of Poe's “Imitation”:
... waking thought
Of beings that have been.
TEXTS
(A) Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), pp. 26-27; (B) Baltimore North American, October 20, 1827; (C) manuscript (1828).
The manuscript (C) in Edgar Allan Poe's hand, and once owned by Lambert A. Wilmer, is the latest text and is followed, by permission of the Trustees of the Pierpont Morgan Library. The second version (B) was initialed “W. H. P.” by Edgar's brother, but (although complete) is headed “Extract,” presumably as a disclaimer of authorship.
Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!
My spirit not awak’ning till the beam
Of an Eternity should bring the morrow:
Yes! tho’ that long dream were of hopeless sorrow,
[[v]]
5
’Twere better than the dull reality
[[v]]
Of waking life to him whose heart shall be,
[[v]]
And hath been ever, on the chilly earth,
A chaos of deep passion from his birth!
But should it be — that dream eternally
10
Continuing — as dreams have been to me
In my young boyhood — should it thus be given,
’Twere folly still to hope for higher Heaven!
For I have revell’d, when the sun was bright
[[v]]
In the summer sky; in dreamy fields of light,
[[v]]
15
And left unheedingly my very heart
[[v]]
In climes of mine imagining — apart
From mine own home, with beings that have been
Of mine own thought — what more could I have seen? [page 69:]
[[n]]
’Twas once and only once and the wild hour
[[v]]
20
From my remembrance shall not pass — some power
Or spell had bound me — ’twas the chilly wind
Came o’er me in the night and left behind
Its image on my spirit, or the moon
Shone on my slumbers in her lofty noon
25
Too coldly — or the stars — howe’er it was
That dream was as that night wind — let it pass.
[[v]]
I have been happy — tho’ but in a dream.
I have been happy — and I love the theme —
Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life —
[[n]]
30
As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife
Of semblance with reality which brings
To the delirious eye more lovely things
Of Paradise and Love — and all our own!
Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.
[1827-1828]
5 dull / cold (A, B)
6 shall be / must be (A)
7 And hath been still, upon the lovely earth (A, B)
14 In the summer sky, in dreams of living light (A, B) [except that the first word is from broken types in A and may be meant for I]
15 And loveliness — have left my very heart (A, B)
16 Inclines of mine imaginary apart (A)
20 remembrance / remembering (B)
27 tho’ but / tho’ (A)
19 The language reminds one of the opening line of the late poem “To Helen Whitman”: “I saw thee once — once only” — and of a passage in the tale “Eleonora”: “Once — oh, but once only, I was awakened from a slumber ... by the pressing of spiritual lips upon my own.”
19-26 These lines, Richard Wilbur (Poe, pp. 119-120) suggests, answer the question of the preceding line. The poet has once — but only once — had a mystic experience, becoming aware of the reality of his visions. Campbell (Poems, p. 158) thought the reference was to the moment when Poe realized his poetic genius.
30 The description is of a daydream, according to Wilbur as cited above.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:1 - TOM1P, 1969] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Editions-The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (T. O. Mabbott) (Dreams)