{
 "id": "edgar-allan-poe/israfel",
 "title": "Israfel",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Edgar Allan Poe",
 "poet_slug": "edgar-allan-poe",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems",
 "book_slug": "poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 2,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1831,
  "venue": "Poems (1831)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://www.eapoe.org/works/editions/poems.htm"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/edgar-allan-poe_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
   "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)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": null,
    "was": "Israfel36",
    "now": "Israfel",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
    "checked_against": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2151",
    "date": "2026-08-12",
    "field": "title"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 51,
  "n_stanzas": 7,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 41,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "In Heaven a spirit doth dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Whose heart-strings are a lute”;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "None sing so wildly well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As the angel Israfel,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the giddy Stars (so legends tell)",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his voice, all mute.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Tottering above",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In her highest noon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The enamored Moon",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Blushes with love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While, to listen, the red levin",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "(With the rapid Pleiads, even,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Which were seven),",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Pauses in Heaven",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And they say (the starry choir",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the other listening things)",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That Israfeli’s fire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is owing to that lyre",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By which he sits and sings⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trembling living wire",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of those unusual strings.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But the skies that angel trod,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where deep thoughts are a duty⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Love’s a grown-up God⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where the Houri glances are",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Imbued with all the beauty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which we worship in a star.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Therefore, thou art not wrong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Israfeli, who despisest",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "An unimpassioned song;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To thee the laurels belong,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Best bard, because the wisest!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Merrily live and long!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The ecstasies above",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With thy burning measures suit⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the fervor of thy lute⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Well may the stars be mute!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, Heaven is thine; but this",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is a world of sweets and sours;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Our flowers are merely⁠—flowers,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shadow of thy perfect bliss",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is the sunshine of ours.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "If I could dwell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where Israfel",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hath dwelt, and he where I,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He might not sing so wildly well",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A mortal melody,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "While a bolder note than this might swell",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From my lyre within the sky.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}