and of the daughters of paradise; but even the trees themselves will celebrate the divine praises with a harmony exceeding whatever mortals have heard; to which will be joined the sound of the bells hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of God, so often as the blessed wish for music.]

II, 127 are modell'd. That is (to borrow the words of Professor J. P. Fruit, The Mind and Art of Poe's Poetry, p. 28), are to be regarded as but earthly imitations of their divine prototypes.” Professor Fruit cites in this connection parallel passages from Plato's Gorgias and Phado.

II, 128 The comma after " then " is omitted in 1845.

II, 134 star-isles.

11. 13-15:

Cf. Byron's The Island, Canto II, stanza xi,

The sea-spread net, the lightly-launched canoe,
Which stemmed the studded archipelago,
O'er whose blue bosom rose the starry isles;

and The Siege of Corinth, xi, ll. 3–5:

Blue roll the waters, blue the sky

Spreads like an ocean hung on high,
Bespangled with those isles of light.

See also Campbell's The Pleasures of Hope, Part II, II. 206–207:

Thy seraph eye shall count the starry train,

Like distant isles embosom'd in the main.

II, 140, 141 "The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be moonlight.

"The rhyme in this verse, as in one about sixty lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud Halcro-in whose mouth I admired its effect:

"O! were there an island,

Tho' ever so wild

Where woman might smile, and

No man be beguil'd, &c.'" - POE.

See the note on line 76, above.

[The lines quoted from Scott are from the twelfth chapter of The Pirate.]

II, 142 The comma after " them" is omitted in 1845.

II, 151 cold moon. See the note on Tamerlane, 1. 203.

II, 158 I have substituted a comma for the dash with which this line ends in 1845.

II, 159 f. Poe seems to say that the inhabitants of Al Aaraaf possessed all the attributes of the angels of heaven except knowledge (cf. also Part I, 1. 116); supreme knowledge was denied those who chose Al Aaraaf. Its keen light was transmitted to them only indirectly, imperfectly. It was well for them, however, continues the poet (ll. 162 f.) that they did not possess the knowledge of the angels; since such knowledge, in Al Aaraaf, would have meant annihilation to those that possessed it. So likewise with us (on earth), adds Poe, even "the breath" of knowledge "dims the mirror of our joy.” Poe develops much the same idea in his Sonnet- To Science, which both in 1829 and in 1831 served as a sort of motto for Al Aaraaf, being influenced there, as I have endeavored to show in the notes, by Keats. The idea here may have been suggested to him by a passage in the preface to Moore's The Loves of the Angels (text of 1823) and by 11. 664 f. of that poem:

that wish to know,

Sad, fatal zeal, so sure of woe;

Which, though from Heaven all pure it came,

Yet stained, misused, brought sin and shame
On her, on me, on all below!

II, 162 The reference is to the death that admitted to Al Aaraaf (instead of to heaven or hell), not to the death (with its consequent annihilation) that followed upon the indulgence in the "less holy pleasures" of Al Aaraaf.

II, 168 The reference is still (as in line 162) to the death which admitted into Al Aaraaf, not the ultimate death of erring ones in Al Aaraaf.

II, 170-173 On Poe's religious views, see the notes on Hymn. II, 173 "With the Arabians there is a medium between Heaven and Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyment.

Sorrow is not excluded from 'Al Aaraaf,' but it is that sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some minds, resembles the delirium of opium. The passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures the price of which, to those souls who make choice of Al Aaraaf' as their residence after life, is final death and annihilation.". POE.

See the introductory note, above, containing Sale's comments on Al Aaraaf.

[The quotation from Luis Ponce de Leon is to be found in his Poesias, "Libro primero" (ed. R. Fernandez, Madrid, 1790), p. 2, where it reads as follows (Poe, as usual, garbling his text):

Un no rompido sueño,

Un dia puro, alegre, libre quiero :

[then follow eleven lines which Poe skips]

Libre de amor, de zelo,

De odio, de esperanzas, de rezelo.

(An uninterrupted sleep, a day pure, joyful, free, seek [ye] - free from love, from zeal, from hate, from hope, from jealousy.)]

II, 174 This line clearly introduces a new stage in the story, and hence has been indented in the present edition.

II, 176 they fell. That is, Angelo and Ianthe, inasmuch as their passionate love for each other rendered them deaf to Nesace's summons, are condemned to death and annihilation (see Poe's note on line 173, above).

II, 176, 177 Repeated with slight variations in the last two lines of the poem.

II, 178 A maiden-angel and her seraph-lover. Ianthe, apparently, was native to Al Aaraaf; Angelo (the seraph-lover) had dwelt before Ideath on this earth.

II, 180 See lines 86-87, above.

II, 181 'mid "tears of perfect moan."

"There be tears of perfect moan

Wept for thee in Helicon.- Milton."

POE.

[The lines are from Milton's An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester (11. 55-56). Poe substitutes "There" for "Here" in the first line.]

II, 181-264 The episode of Ianthe and Angelo is introduced, evidently, to exemplify one of the central truths which the poet wishes to teach; namely, that even so worthy a passion as love may hinder one's appreciation of the beautiful.

The model for his story Poe found in the "First Angel's Story" in Moore's The Loves of the Angels (1823). The analogy between the two is obvious, both in the setting in time and place and in the narrative which Angelo tells of his death and his passage thereafter to Al Aaraaf.

The situation which Poe depicts in his dialogue between the angel lovers was a favorite one with him; see, for instance, his Eiros and Charmion and his Colloquy of Monos and Una.

II, 191 See Tamerlane, ll. 139 f., and the note thereon. A similar situation appears in Moore's The Loves of the Angels, 11. 21 f., 167 f. II, 204 An unusually clumsy line. Poe wrote John Neal in 1829 that much correcting of the meter of Al Aaraaf remained to be done (see Woodberry, I, p. 369).

II, 210 f. Perhaps a reminiscence of The Loves of the Angels, 11. 496 f: Can you forget how gradual stole

The fresh-awakened breath of soul
Throughout her perfect form?

II, 215 A full stop has been substituted for the dash with which this line closes in 1845. - the Parthenon. "It was entire in 1687 — the most elevated spot in Athens."

II, 217

POE.

'Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows

Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love.

[The passage is from Doctor Faustus, I, ll. 126-127. Poe follows the text of the edition of 1616. The second of the two lines is echoed, apparently, in lines 64-65 of Part I of Al Aaraaf.]

II, 221-224 The passage is Miltonic; cf. Paradise Lost, III, 418 f.,

543 f.

II, 226 See also lines 243 f., below. This note of regret finds its counterpart in The Loves of the Angels, 11. 167 f.

II, 228 A comma has been substituted for the dash with which this line ends in the original.

II, 229 yon world above. That is, this earth; see line 238, below. II, 232 pennon'd. "Pennon for pinion. - Milton." - POE.

[Poe has reference, probably, to Paradise Lost, II, 1. 933.]

II, 237 I have inserted a comma after "soar."

II, 237-239 So with Satan in his journey up from the gates of hell to the rim of the world (Paradise Lost, II, 927 f.). It is in his account of Satan's journey that Milton uses the word " pennons (meaning "pinions "), touched on in the preceding note.

II, 244 Dædalion. Poe's misspelling of the adjective "Dædalian," used here as a substantive. The word is derived from Dædalus, and has reference to the fabled flight of Dædalus with Icarus to the earth, and possibly also, in the present instance, to the gifts of Dædalus as artificer. (See Gayley's Classic Myths, p. 256.)

II, 245 thy Earth. That is, this world; Ianthe, apparently, had dwelt always in Al Aaraaf (as did the houris in Aidenn).

II, 253-256 In quoting these lines in 1848 in his essay, The Rationale of Verse (Harrison, XIV, p. 235), Poe altered line 255 to read: "When first the phantom's course was found to be"; and in the next line substituted " hitherward" for "thitherward."

II, 257 its glory. That is, of this world, "the heritage of men."

II, 260 thy star trembled -as doth Beauty then. That is, the earth trembled (at the sight of Al Aaraaf) as does Beauty when "beneath man's eye" (1. 257).

II, 262 The night that waned and waned and brought no day. Cf. Byron's Darkness, 1. 6:

Morn came and went

- and came, and brought no day.

II, 263, 264 Repeated, with slight changes, from lines 176–177, above.

ROMANCE (49)

(1829; 1831; Philadelphia Saturday Museum, March 4, 1843; Broadway Journal, August 30, 1845; 1845)

(TEXT: 1845)

Romance in its later and final forms closely approximates the form in which it was first published (1829). But in the edition of 1831 the poem is much enlarged, being more than trebled in length. The added passages are largely personal in nature a fact which probably explains their omission in subsequent editions. Among the omitted passages is one containing the earliest known allusion to Poe's fondness for drink;