The Works of Edgar Allan Poe – Volume 5

The Elfin from the green grass, and from me
The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

AL AARAAF[6 - A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe which appearedsuddenly in the heavens – attained, in a few days, abrilliancy surpassing that of Jupiter – then as suddenlydisappeared, and has never been seen since.]

PART I

O!  NOTHING earthly save the ray
(Thrown back from flowers) of Beauty’s eye,
As in those gardens where the day
Springs from the gems of Circassy —
O! nothing earthly save the thrill
Of melody in woodland rill —
Or (music of the passion-hearted)
Joy’s voice so peacefully departed
That like the murmur in the shell,
Its echo dwelleth and will dwell —
Oh, nothing of the dross of ours —
Yet all the beauty – all the flowers
That list our Love, and deck our bowers —
Adorn yon world afar, afar —
The wandering star.

‘Twas a sweet time for Nesace – for there
Her world lay lolling on the golden air,
Near four bright suns – a temporary rest —
An oasis in desert of the blest.

Away – away – ‘mid seas of rays that roll
Empyrean splendor o’er th’ unchained soul —
The soul that scarce (the billows are so dense)
Can struggle to its destin’d eminence —
To distant spheres, from time to time, she rode,
And late to ours, the favour’d one of God —
But, now, the ruler of an anchor’d realm,
She throws aside the sceptre – leaves the helm,
And, amid incense and high spiritual hymns,
Laves in quadruple light her angel limbs.

Now happiest, loveliest in yon lovely Earth,
Whence sprang the “Idea of Beauty” into birth,
(Falling in wreaths thro’ many a startled star,
Like woman’s hair ‘mid pearls, until, afar,
It lit on hills Achaian, and there dwelt)
She look’d into Infinity – and knelt.
Rich clouds, for canopies, about her curled —
Fit emblems of the model of her world —
Seen but in beauty – not impeding sight
Of other beauty glittering thro’ the light —
A wreath that twined each starry form around,
And all the opal’d air in color bound.

All hurriedly she knelt upon a bed
Of flowers:  of lilies such as rear’d the head
[7 - This flower is much noticed by Lewenhoeck and Tournefort.The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.]On the fair Capo Deucato, and sprang
So eagerly around about to hang
Upon the flying footsteps of – deep pride —
[8 - Clytia – The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ abetter-known term, the turnsol – which continually turnstowards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country fromwhich it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh itsflowers during the most violent heat of the day. —B. de St. Pierre.]Of her who lov’d a mortal – and so died.
The Sephalica, budding with young bees,
Uprear’d its purple stem around her knees:

[9 - This flower is much noticed by Lewenhoeck and Tournefort.The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.] On Santa Maura – olim Deucadia.

[10 - Clytia – The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ abetter-known term, the turnsol – which continually turnstowards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country fromwhich it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh itsflowers during the most violent heat of the day. —B. de St. Pierre.]And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam’d —
Inmate of highest stars, where erst it sham’d
All other loveliness: its honied dew
(The fabled nectar that the heathen knew)
Deliriously sweet, was dropp’d from Heaven,
And fell on gardens of the unforgiven
In Trebizond – and on a sunny flower
So like its own above that, to this hour,
It still remaineth, torturing the bee
With madness, and unwonted reverie:
In Heaven, and all its environs, the leaf
And blossom of the fairy plant, in grief
Disconsolate linger – grief that hangs her head,
Repenting follies that full long have fled,
Heaving her white breast to the balmy air,
Like guilty beauty, chasten’d, and more fair:
Nyctanthes too, as sacred as the light
She fears to perfume, perfuming the night:
[11 - Clytia – The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ abetter-known term, the turnsol – which continually turnstowards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country fromwhich it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh itsflowers during the most violent heat of the day. —B. de St. Pierre.]And Clytia pondering between many a sun,
While pettish tears adown her petals run:
[12 - There is cultivated in the king’s garden at Paris, aspecies of serpentine aloes without prickles, whose largeand beautiful flower exhales a strong odour of the vanilla,during the time of its expansion, which is very short. Itdoes not blow till towards the month of July – you thenperceive it gradually open its petals – expand them – fadeand die. —St. Pierre.]And that aspiring flower that sprang on Earth —
And died, ere scarce exalted into birth,
Bursting its odorous heart in spirit to wing
Its way to Heaven, from garden of a king:

[13 - There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of theValisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length ofthree or four feet – thus preserving its head above waterin the swellings of the river.]And Valisnerian lotus thither flown
From struggling with the waters of the Rhone:
[14 - The Hyacinth.]And thy most lovely purple perfume, Zante!
Isola d’oro! – Fior di Levante!
[15 - It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was firstseen floating in one of these down the river Ganges – andthat he still loves the cradle of his childhood.]And the Nelumbo bud that floats for ever
With Indian Cupid down the holy river —
Fair flowers, and fairy! to whose care is given
[16 - And golden vials full of odors which are the prayers of the saints.– Rev. St. John.]To bear the Goddess’ song, in odors, up to Heaven:

“Spirit! that dwellest where,
In the deep sky,
The terrible and fair,