Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. W. P. Trent), “Israfel,” Poems and Tales (1897 and 1898), pp. 22-24


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[page 22:]

ISRAFEL.*

IN Heaven a spirit doth dwell

“Whose heart-strings are a lute;”

None sing so wildly well

[[n]]

As the angel Israfel,

5

And the giddy stars (so legends tell)

Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell

Of his voice, all mute.

Tottering above

In her highest noon,

10

The enamoured moon

Blushes with love,

[[n]]

While, to listen, the red levin

(With the rapid Pleiads, even,

[[n]]

Which were seven),

15

Pauses in Heaven. [page 23:]

And they say (the starry choir

And the other listening things)

That Israfeli's fire

Is owing to that lyre

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By which he sits and sings,

The trembling living wire

Of those unusual strings.

But the skies that angel trod,

Where deep thoughts are a duty,

25

Where Love's a grown-up God —

[[n]]

Where the Houri glances are

Imbued with all the beauty

Which we worship in a star.

Therefore, thou art not wrong,

30

Israfeli, who despisest

An unimpassioned song;

To thee the laurels belong,

Best bard, because the wisest!

Merrily live, and long!

35

The ecstasies above

With thy burning measures suit:

Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,

With the fervour of thy lute:

Well may the stars be mute!

40

Yes, Heaven is thine; but this

Is a world of sweets and sours;

Our flowers are merely — flowers, [page 24:]

And the shadow of thy perfect bliss

Is the sunshine of ours.

[[45]]

If I could dwell

Where Israfel

Hath dwelt, and he where I,

He might not sing so wildly well

A mortal melody,

50

While a bolder note than this might swell

[[n]]

From my lyre within the sky.

 


[[Footnotes]]

[The following notes appear at the bottom of page 22:]

* Israfel was first published in the collection of 1831, bat was much elaborated and improved before it took final form. Poe's control over the subtler beauties of his art is nowhere more definitely shown, and Mr. Stedman is clearly right in maintaining that the more the poem is studied the rarer it seems. “The lyric phrasing is minstrelsy throughout — the soul of nature mastering a human voice.” It may be doubted whether even in the lyrics of Shelley, which certainly influenced Poe, there is to be found any more complete expression of the highest poetic rapture than is contained in several of these stanzas.

4. Poe's own motto runs: “And the angel Israfel, whose heartstrings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures. KORAN.” [Really from Sale's Preliminary Discourse, iv. 71, through Moore's Lalla Rookh. The phrase “whose heartstrings,” etc., was interpolated by Poe.]

12. Levin, better spelt “leven,” — an obsolete word for lightning.

14. Only six of these stars are conspicuous, hence the legend of the Lost Pleiad. See Harper's Classical Dictionary.

[The following note appears at the bottom of page 23:]

26. The houris are nymphs of paradise, according to the Mohammedans, beautiful, immortal virgins who attend upon the faithful after death.

[The following note appears at the bottom of page 24:]

51. Compare with the close of Shelley's Skylark.

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - WPT97, 1897 and 1898] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Editions - Israfel (W. P. Trent, 1897 and 1898)