{
"id": "edgar-allan-poe/al-aaraaf",
"title": "Al Aaraaf",
"ordinal": null,
"subtitle": null,
"poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
"poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
"language": "en",
"book": "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems",
"book_slug": "al-aaraaf-tamerlane-and-minor-poems",
"book_kind": "volume",
"sequence": 2,
"container": null,
"epigraph": null,
"first_published": {
"year": 1829,
"venue": "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems (1829)",
"note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
"uncertain": false,
"sources": [
"https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002041665",
"https://www.eapoe.org/works/editions/atmp.htm"
]
},
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"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Acrostic",
"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Elizabeth_(Poe)",
"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Serenade_(Poe)",
"https://archive.org/details/worksedgarallan00unkngoog",
"https://archive.org/details/cu31924019520810",
"https://archive.org/details/jstor-2915307"
],
"rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
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"line": 47,
"was": "Of her who lov’d a mortal—and so died.7",
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"was": "And Valisnerian lotus thither flown11",
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"was": "And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!12",
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"was": "And the Nelumbo bud that floats forever.13",
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"was": "To bear the Goddess’ song, in odors up to Heaven.14",
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"was": "By wingèd Fantasy,16",
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"line": 133,
"was": "“What tho’ in worlds which sightless cycles run,17",
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"line": 145,
"was": "Apart—like fire-flies in Sicilian night,18",
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"was": "Her way—but left not yet her Therasaean reign.19",
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"was": "Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall20",
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"line": 196,
"was": "Of beautiful Gomorrah! Oh, the wave22",
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"line": 200,
"was": "That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,23",
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"was": "Is not its form—its voice—most palpable and loud?24",
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"was": "Young flowers were whispering in melody25",
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"was": "The murmur that springs28",
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"was": "Apart from Heaven’s Eternity—and yet how far from Hell!30",
"now": "Apart from Heaven’s Eternity—and yet how far from Hell!",
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"line": 339,
"was": "Unguided Love hath fallen—’mid “tears of perfect moan.”31",
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"line": 373,
"was": "Was a proud temple called the Parthenon;32",
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"was": "Than even thy glowing bosom beats withal,33",
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"line": 390,
"was": "Failed, as my pennoned spirit leapt aloft.34",
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[
{
"text": "O! nothing earthly save the ray",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty’s eye,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "As in those gardens where the day",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "Springs from the germs of Circassy—",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "O! nothing earthly save the thrill",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "Of melody in woodland rill—",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "Or (music of the passion-hearted)",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "Joy’s voice so peacefully departed",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "That like the murmur in the shell,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Its echo dwelleth and will dwell—",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "O! nothing of the dross of ours—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Yet all the beauty—all the flowers",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That list our Love, and deck our bowers—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Adorn yon world afar, afar—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The wandering star.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "’Twas a sweet time for Nesace—for there",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Her world lay lolling on the golden air,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Near four bright suns—a temporary rest—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "An oasis in desert of the blest.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Away—away—’mid seas of rays that roll",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Empyrean splendor o’er th’ unchained soul—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Can struggle to its destin’d eminence—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And late to ours, the favor’d one of God—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But, now, the ruler of an anchor’d realm,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She throws aside the sceptre—leaves the helm,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Whence sprang the “Idea of Beauty” into birth,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "(Falling in wreaths thro’ many a startled star,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Like woman’s hair ’mid pearls, until, afar,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt),",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She look’d into Infinity—and knelt.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Fit emblems of the model of her world—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Seen but in beauty—not impeding sight—",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "Of other beauty glittering thro’ the light—",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "A wreath that twined each starry form around,",
"indent": 0
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{
"text": "And all the opal’d air in color bound.",
"indent": 0
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],
[
{
"text": "All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Of flowers: of lilies such as rear’d the head",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "So eagerly around about to hang",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Upon the flying footsteps of—deep pride—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of her who lov’d a mortal—and so died.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The Sephalica, budding with young bees,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Uprear’d its purple stem around her knees:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam’d—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham’d",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "All other loveliness: its honied dew",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Deliriously sweet, was dropp’d from Heaven,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And fell on gardens of the unforgiven",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "In Trebizond—and on a sunny flower",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "So like its own above that, to this hour,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "It still remaineth, torturing the bee",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With madness, and unwonted reverie:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Disconsolate linger—grief that hangs her head,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Repenting follies that full long have fled,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Like guilty beauty, chasten’d, and more fair:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And Clytia pondering between many a sun,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "While pettish tears adown her petals run:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And Valisnerian lotus thither flown",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Isola d’oro!—Fior di Levante!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And the Nelumbo bud that floats forever.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With Indian Cupid down the holy river—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To bear the Goddess’ song, in odors up to Heaven.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“Spirit! that dwellest where,",
"indent": 3
},
{
"text": "In the deep sky,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The terrible and fair,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In beauty vie!",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Beyond the line of blue—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "The boundary of the star",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Which turneth at the view",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Of thy barrier and thy bar—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Of the barrier overgone",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "By the comets who were cast",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "From their pride, and from their throne",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "To be drudges till the last—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "To be carriers of fire",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "(The red fire of their heart)",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "With speed that may not tire",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "And with pain that shall not part—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Who livest—that we know—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In Eternity—we feel—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "But the shadow of whose brow",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "What spirit shall reveal?",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Tho’ the beings whom thy Nesace,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Thy messenger hath known",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Have dream’d for thy Infinity",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "A model of their own—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Thy will is done, O, God!",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "The star hath ridden high",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Thro’ many a tempest, but she rode",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Beneath thy burning eye;",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "And here, in thought, to thee—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In thought that can alone",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Ascend thy empire and so be",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "A partner of thy throne—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "By wingèd Fantasy,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "My embassy is given,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Till secrecy shall knowledge be",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In the environs of Heaven.”",
"indent": 5
}
],
[
{
"text": "She ceas’d—and buried then her burning cheek",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Abash’d, amid the lilies there, to seek",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A shelter from the fervor of His eye;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "For the stars trembled at the Deity.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She stirr’d not—breath’d not—for a voice was there",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "How solemnly pervading the calm air!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A sound of silence on the startled ear",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Which dreamy poets name “the music of the sphere.”",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Ours is a world of words: Quiet we call",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "“Silence”—which is the merest word of all.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "All Nature speaks, and ev’n ideal things",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Flap shadowy sounds from visionary wings—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But ah! not so when, thus, in realms on high",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The eternal voice of God is passing by,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And the red winds are withering in the sky!",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“What tho’ in worlds which sightless cycles run,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Link’d to a little system, and one sun—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Where all my love is folly, and the crowd",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Still think my terrors but the thunder cloud,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The storm, the earthquake, and the ocean-wrath—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "(Ah! will they cross me in my angrier path?)",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What tho’ in worlds which own a single sun",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The sands of Time grow dimmer as they run,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Yet thine is my resplendency, so given",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To bear my secrets thro’ the upper Heaven.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Leave tenantless thy crystal home, and fly,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With all thy train, athwart the moony sky—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Apart—like fire-flies in Sicilian night,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And wing to other worlds another light!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Divulge the secrets of thy embassy",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To the proud orbs that twinkle—and so be",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To ev’ry heart a barrier and a ban",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Lest the stars totter in the guilt of man!”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "Up rose the maiden in the yellow night,",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "The single-moonèd eve!—on Earth we plight",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Our faith to one love—and one moon adore—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The birthplace of young Beauty had no more.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "As sprang that yellow star from downy hours,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Up rose the maiden from her shrine of flowers,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And bent o’er sheeny mountain and dim plain",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Her way—but left not yet her Therasaean reign.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "High on a mountain of enamell’d head—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Such as the drowsy shepherd on his bed",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of giant pasturage lying at his ease,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Raising his heavy eyelid, starts and sees",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With many a mutter’d “hope to be forgiven”",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What time the moon is quadrated in Heaven—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of rosy head, that towering far away",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Into the sunlit ether, caught the ray",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of sunken suns at eve—at noon of night,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "While the moon danc’d with the fair stranger light—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Uprear’d upon such height arose a pile",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of gorgeous columns on th’ unburden’d air,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Flashing from Parian marble that twin smile",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Far down upon the wave that sparkled there,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And nursled the young mountain in its lair.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of molten stars their pavement, such as fall",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Thro’ the ebon air, besilvering the pall",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of their own dissolution, while they die—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Adorning then the dwellings of the sky.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A dome, by linkèd light from Heaven let down,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Sat gently on these columns as a crown—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A window of one circular diamond, there,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Look’d out above into the purple air,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And rays from God shot down that meteor chain",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And hallow’d all the beauty twice again,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Save when, between th’ Empyrean and that ring,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Some eager spirit flapp’d his dusky wing.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But on the pillars Seraph eyes have seen",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The dimness of this world: that grayish green",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That Nature loves the best for Beauty’s grave",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Lurk’d in each cornice, round each architrave—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And every sculptur’d cherub thereabout",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That from his marble dwelling peerèd out,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Seem’d earthly in the shadow of his niche—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Achaian statues in a world so rich?",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Friezes from Tadmor and Persepolis—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "From Balbec, and the stilly, clear abyss",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of beautiful Gomorrah! Oh, the wave",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Is now upon thee—but too late to save!",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "Sound loves to revel in a summer night:",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Witness the murmur of the gray twilight",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of many a wild star-gazer long ago—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That stealeth ever on the ear of him",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And sees the darkness coming as a cloud—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Is not its form—its voice—most palpable and loud?",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "But what is this?—it cometh—and it brings",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "A music with it—’tis the rush of wings—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A pause—and then a sweeping, falling strain,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And Nesace is in her halls again.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "From the wild energy of wanton haste",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "The zone that clung around her gentle waist",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.",
"indent": 1
},
{
"text": "Within the centre of that hall to breathe",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She paus’d and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The fairy light that kiss’d her golden hair",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And long’d to rest, yet could but sparkle there!",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "Young flowers were whispering in melody",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To happy flowers that night—and tree to tree;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Fountains were gushing music as they fell",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "In many a starlit grove, or moonlit dell;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Yet silence came upon material things—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Fair flowers, bright waterfalls and angel wings—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And sound alone that from the spirit sprang",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Bore burden to the charm the maiden sang:",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“ ’Neath blue-bell or streamer—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Or tufted wild spray",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "That keeps, from the dreamer,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "The moonbeam away—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Bright beings! that ponder,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "With half-closing eyes,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "On the stars which your wonder",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Hath drawn from the skies,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Till they glance thro’ the shade, and",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Come down to your brow",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Like—eyes of the maiden",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Who calls on you now—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Arise! from your dreaming",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In violet bowers,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "To duty beseeming",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "These starlitten hours—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "And shake from your tresses",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Encumber’d with dew",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The breath of those kisses",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "That cumber them too—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "(O! how, without you, Love!",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Could angels be blest?)",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Those kisses of true love",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "That lull’d ye to rest!",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Up! shake from your wing",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Each hindering thing:",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "The dew of the night—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "It would weigh down your flight;",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "And true love caresses—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "O! leave them apart!",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "They are light on the tresses,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "But lead on the heart.",
"indent": 5
}
],
[
{
"text": "“Ligeia! Ligeia!",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "My beautiful one!",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Whose harshest idea",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Will to melody run,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "O! is it thy will",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "On the breezes to toss?",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Or, capriciously still,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Like the lone Albatross,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Incumbent on night",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "(As she on the air)",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "To keep watch with delight",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "On the harmony there?",
"indent": 5
}
],
[
{
"text": "“Ligeia! wherever",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Thy image may be,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "No magic shall sever",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Thy music from thee.",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Thou hast bound many eyes",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In a dreamy sleep—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "But the strains still arise",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Which thy vigilance keep—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The sound of the rain",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Which leaps down to the flower,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "And dances again",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In the rhythm of the shower—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The murmur that springs",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "From the growing of grass",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Are the music of things—",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "But are modell’d, alas!—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Away, then, my dearest,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "O! hie thee away",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "To springs that lie clearest",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Beneath the moon-ray—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "To lone lake that smiles,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "In its dream of deep rest,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "At the many star-isles",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "That enjewel its breast—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Where wild flowers, creeping,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Have mingled their shade,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "On its margin is sleeping",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Full many a maid—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Some have left the cool glade, and",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Have slept with the bee—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Arouse them, my maiden,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "On moorland and lea—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Go! breathe on their slumber,",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "All softly in ear,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The musical number",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "They slumber’d to hear—",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "For what can awaken",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "An angel so soon",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "Whose sleep hath been taken",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Beneath the cold moon,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "As the spell which no slumber",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Of witchery may test,",
"indent": 5
},
{
"text": "The rhythmical number",
"indent": 4
},
{
"text": "Which lull’d him to rest?”",
"indent": 5
}
],
[
{
"text": "Spirits in wing, and angels to the view,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A thousand seraphs burst th’ Empyrean thro’.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Young dreams still hovering on their drowsy flight—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Seraphs in all but “Knowledge,” the keen light",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That fell, refracted, thro’ thy bounds afar",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "O Death! from eye of God upon that star:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Sweet was that error—sweeter still that death—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Sweet was that error—ev’n with us the breath",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Of Science dims the mirror of our joy—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To them ’twere the Simoom, and would destroy—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "For what (to them) availeth it to know",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That Truth is Falsehood—or that Bliss is Woe?",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Sweet was their death—with them to die was rife",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With the last ecstasy of satiate life—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Beyond that death no immortality—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But sleep that pondereth and is not “to be”—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And there—oh! may my weary spirit dwell—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Apart from Heaven’s Eternity—and yet how far from Hell!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What guilty spirit, in what shrubbery dim,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Heard not the stirring summons of that hymn?",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But two: they fell: for Heaven no grace imparts",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To those who hear not for their beating hearts.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "O! where (and ye may seek the wide skies over)",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Was Love, the blind, near sober Duty known?",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Unguided Love hath fallen—’mid “tears of perfect moan.”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "He was a goodly spirit—he who fell:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A wanderer by mossy-mantled well—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A gazer on the lights that shine above—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A dreamer in the moonbeam by his love:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What wonder? For each star is eye-like there,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And looks so sweetly down on Beauty’s hair—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And they, and ev’ry mossy spring were holy",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "To his love-haunted heart and melancholy.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The night had found (to him a night of woe)",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Upon a mountain crag, young Angelo—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Beetling it bends athwart the solemn sky,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And scowls on starry worlds that down beneath it lie.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Here sate he with his love—his dark eye bent",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With eagle gaze along the firmament:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Now turn’d it upon her—but ever then",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "It trembled to the orb of Earth again.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“Ianthe, dearest, see! how dim that ray!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "How lovely ’tis to look so far away!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She seem’d not thus upon that autumn eve",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "I left her gorgeous halls—nor mourned to leave.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "That eve—that eve—I should remember well—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The sun-ray dropped, in Lemnos with a spell",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "On th’ Arabesque carving of a gilded hall",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Wherein I sate, and on the draperied wall—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And on my eyelids—O, the heavy light!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "How drowsily it weighed them into night!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "On flowers, before, and mist, and love they ran",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "With Persian Saadi in his Gulistan:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But O, that light!—I slumbered—Death, the while,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Stole o’er my senses in that lovely isle",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "So softly that no single silken hair",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Awoke that slept—or knew that he was there.",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“The last spot of Earth’s orb I trod upon",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Was a proud temple called the Parthenon;",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "More beauty clung around her columned wall",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Than even thy glowing bosom beats withal,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And when old Time my wing did disenthral",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Thence sprang I—as the eagle from his tower,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And years I left behind me in an hour.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "What time upon her airy bounds I hung,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "One half the garden of her globe was flung",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Unrolling as a chart unto my view—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Tenantless cities of the desert too!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Ianthe, beauty crowded on me then,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And half I wish’d to be again of men.”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“My Angelo! and why of them to be?",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A brighter dwelling-place is here for thee—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And greener fields than in yon world above,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And women’s loveliness—and passionate love.”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“But, list, Ianthe! when the air so soft",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Failed, as my pennoned spirit leapt aloft.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Perhaps my brain grew dizzy—but the world",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "I left so late was into chaos hurled,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Sprang from her station, on the winds apart,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And rolled a flame, the fiery Heaven athwart.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Methought, my sweet one, then I ceased to soar,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And fell—not swiftly as I rose before,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But with a downward, tremulous motion thro’",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Light, brazen rays, this golden star unto!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Nor long the measure of my falling hours,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "For nearest of all stars was thine to ours—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Dread star! that came, amid a night of mirth,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "A red Daedalion on the timid Earth.”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "“We came—and to thy Earth—but not to us",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Be given our lady’s bidding to discuss:",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "We came, my love; around, above, below,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Gay fire-fly of the night we come and go,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Nor ask a reason save the angel-nod",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "She grants to us, as granted by her God—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But, Angelo, than thine gray Time unfurled",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Never his fairy wing o’er fairer world!",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Dim was its little disk, and angel eyes",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Alone could see the phantom in the skies,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "When first Al Aaraaf knew her course to be",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Headlong thitherward o’er the starry sea—",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "But when its glory swell’d upon the sky,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "As glowing Beauty’s bust beneath man’s eye,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "We paused before the heritage of men,",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "And thy star trembled—as doth Beauty then!”",
"indent": 0
}
],
[
{
"text": "Thus, in discourse, the lovers whiled away",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "The night that waned and waned and brought no day.",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "They fell: for Heaven to them no hope imparts",
"indent": 0
},
{
"text": "Who hear not for the beating of their hearts.",
"indent": 0
}
]
]
}