But waft the angel on her flight Let no bell toll! Lest her sweet soul, Amid its hallow'd mirth, Should catch the note As it doth float Up from the damnéd earth — To friends above, from fiends below, To a gold throne Beside the King of Heaven!" The following are the variations of Broadway Journal from 1845: I. 2 river; (,) IV. 7 grief (moan). The Lorimer Graham variations of the text from 1845, not seen or not adopted by Griswold, are as follows: Substitute for IV. : "Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise. “But waft the angel on her flight with a pæan of old days! "Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth. "To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven "From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven— "From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven.” NOTE.- Mrs. S. H. Whitman, in "Edgar Poe and his Critics," asserts, without further evidence, that in a version of "Lenore" published in Russell's Magazine, the name "Helen occurs instead of "Lenore.' -ED. Col. T. W. Higginson ("Short Studies of American Authors," p. 15) remarks: "Never in American literature, I think, was such a fountain of melody flung into the air as when 'Lenore' first appeared in The Pioneer;' and never did fountain so drop downward as when Poe re-arranged it in its present form. The irregular measure had a beauty as original as that of Christabel;' and the lines had an ever-varying cadence of their own, until their author himself took them and cramped them into couplets. What a change from Peccavimus! But rave not thus ! And let the solemn song Go up to God so mournfully that she may feel no wrong! to the amended version portioned off in regular lengths." EDITOR'S Note. The innocent Lenore. the queenliest dead was done to death by slanderous eyes and tongues. Lenore has gone to Heaven, taking with her hope, leaving her lover wild for her who should have been his bride. This merits no dirge but a pœan This lyric of grief has again for its theme the death of a beautiful young woman. Poe's fondness for the name is shown by its recurrence in "The Raven," and in "Eleonora," one of the best of his prose-poems. THE VALLEY OF UNREST. Page 55. AMERICAN WHIG REVIEW, APRIL, 1845; 1845; BROADWAY JOURNAL, II. 9. | THE VALLEY NIS, 1831; SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER, FEB RUARY, 1836. Text, 1845. The earliest version (1831) runs as follows: It is called the valley Nis. Thereabout which Time hath said Shall not be interpreted. Something about Satan's dart Something about angel wings Much about a broken heart · All about unhappy things : But the valley Nis" at best Where the people did not dwell, O'er the unguarded flowers were leaning: Or the sun ray dripp'd all red Now the unhappy shall confess Through the terror-stricken sky, O'er the horizon's fiery wall. There the moon doth shine by night With a most unsteady light There the sun doth reel by day "Over the hills and far away.” The following are the variations of the Southern Literary Messenger from the above: Line 4 east (cap.) 6 Far away (One and all, too) 10 interpreted. (:) 11 dart (o. d.) 22 the (th') 22 leaning: (,) 23 sun ray (sun-ray) 24 the (tall) 27-46: Now each visiter shall confess No wind in Heaven, and lo! the trees No wind in Heaven, and clouds do fly, Through the terror-stricken sky, O'er th' horizon's fiery wall And Helen, like thy human eye, Low crouched on Earth, some violets lie, Variations of the American Whig Review from the text. Line 6 flowers, (o. c.) 18 rustle (rustles) 19 Uneasily (Unceasingly). After 27 insert : They wave; they weep; and the tears as they well From the depths of each pallid lily bell, Give a trickle and a tinkle and a knell. The Broadway Journal shows no variations from the text. EDITOR'S NOTE. A lonely grave in a valley of unrest where trees are eternally without wind and where clouds rustle through unquiet heavens. This fantastic lyric has been connected with the Ragged Mountains and has been used as the germ of a story located in that romantic region. |