Let none of earth inherit
That vision on my spirit;
Those thoughts I would control,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sigh as it pass'd on :
I care not tho' it perish

With a thought I then did cherish.

My days have been a dream and hope has vanished. Time like sand grains slips through the fingers and every thing is a dream within a dream. Note this figure inLocksley Hall."

It does not materially aid the interpretation of this poem to consider it a part of "Tamerlane."

It consists of iambic trimeter riming generally in couplets.

STANZAS.
Page 17.

IN YOUTH HAVE I KNOWN ONE WITH WHOM THE EARTH. 1827.

Text, 1827.

EDITOR'S NOTE.

One whose life was lit from sun and stars knew not the

power over him. The light was fraught with sovereignty and passed with a quickening spell, the token of God's gifts to him who strives and overcomes.

This Reply of Nature to our Intelligence is a monologue of a genius who feels the mysterious power and in its strangeness finds a sign and token of God's gift of beauty to the artist. Note the occurrence in this poem of such conceptions as God, immortality, intimations of the future, etc.

The form of this poem is the Ottava Rima of which Byron was so fond. The prefixed quotation from Byron is taken from Section XVI. of the Island. This was written in Genoa and published in June, 1823. If this poem was the hint to Poe's, then Poe's poem was not written until after 1823 instead of in 1821-2.

A DREAM.

Page 19.

1827 (without title); 1829, 1845; BROADWAY
JOURNAL, II. 6.

Text, 1845.

In 1827 this poem occurs without title.

Variations of 1827 from the text.

Insert as first stanza the following:

A wilder'd being from my birth,
My spirit spurn'd control,

But now, abroad on the wide earth,
Where wanderest thou, my soul?

I. 2 dreamed (dream'd) II. 1 Ah! (And) 4 Turned (Turn'd) III. 3 cheered (cheer'd) 4 guiding. (:) IV. 1 though (tho') 1 storm and (misty) 2 trembled from (dimly shone).

Variations of 1829 from the text.

I

I. 2 dreamed (dream'd) II. 1 Ah! (And) 4 Turned (Turn'd) III. 3 cheered (cheer'd) 4 guiding. (:) IV. 1 though (tho') 4 star ? (? —).

Broadway Journal shows no variations from the text.

EDITOR'S NOTE.

The waking dream of light and life has left him brokenhearted. Life is a dream to him who looks backward, but the dream has proved his guiding spirit, as bright as Truth's day-star.

It is difficult to ascertain what these past joys were.

THE HAPPIEST DAY, THE HAPPIEST

HOUR.
Page 20.

1827.

Text, 1827.

EDITOR'S NOTE.

The author whose seared, blighted heart bemoans a past day and hour of happiness would not live it over again because of the pain mingled with the pleasure.

This poem, written before Poe was eighteen years old, presents life from the point of view of a man worn-out with living. How soon had he learned such bitterness of life!

THE LAKE: TO
Page 21.

1827, 1829, 1831 (TAMERLANE), 1845.

Text, 1845.

The earliest version (1827) runs as follows:

THE LAKE.

In youth's spring it was my lot
To haunt of the wide earth a spot

The which I could not love the less
So lovely was the loneliness

Of a wild lake, with black rock bound,
And the tall pines that tower'd around.
But when the night had thrown her pall
Upon that spot as upon all,
And the wind would pass me by
In its stilly melody,

My infant spirit would awake
To the terror of the lone lake.
Yet that terror was not fright-
But a tremulous delight,
And a feeling undefined,
Springing from a darken'd mind.
Death was in that poison'd wave
And in its gulf a fitting grave

For him who thence could solace bring
To his dark imagining;

Whose wildering thought could even make
An Eden of that dim lake.