Fancy departs: no more invent; To compass of a tent. There's not enough for this and that, Still plan and smile, And, fault of novel germs,- 10 20 The needful sinew stark as once, As the bird trims her to the gale, Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime: "Lowly faithful, banish fear, Right onward drive unharmed; The port, well worth the cruise, is near, And every wave is charmed." 1866. 40 Atlantic Monthly, Jan., 1867. FRAGMENTS The sun set, but set not his hope:Stars rose, his faith was earlier up: Fixed on the enormous galaxy. Deeper and older seemed his eye, And matched his sufferance sublime The taciturnity of Time. 1 Emerson was sixty-three years old when he wrote this poem. His powers of mind began to decline about five years later, although he lived in vigorous health for fifteen years. Let me go where'er I will I hear a sky-born music still: It is not only in the rose, It is not only in the bird, Not only where the rainbow glows, For what need I of book or priest, Or sibyl from the mummied East, When every star is Bethlehem star? I count as many as there are Cinquefoils or violets in the grass, So many saints and saviours, 10 10 EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) TAMERLANE 1 Kind solace in a dying hour! Of Earth may shrive me of the sin Its fount is holier-more divineI would not call thee fool, old man, But such is not a gift of thine. Know thou the secret of a spirit 10 I claim'd and won usurpinglyHath not the same fierce heirdom given 30 Rome to the Cæsar-this to me? The heritage of a kingly mind, And a proud spirit which hath striven Triumphantly with human kind. 1 "Tamerlane" appeared first in Tamerlane and Other Poems, 1827, but was entirely rewritten for the 1829 volume, Al Aaraf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. The text here used is practically that of the 1829 volume. A compari son of the two versions is valuable, as showing Poe's growth in poetic power if not in narrative strength. As Poe conceives the story, Tamerlane is lured from his shepherd home in the mountains and from his early love by ambition. He conquers the entire Eastern world, and returns home to find that his love has died of neglect. The opening lines of the 1827 version give the setting more clearly. So late from Heaven-that dew-it fell Of human battle, where my voice, 50 My passions, from that hapless hour, My innate nature-be it so: But, father, there liv'd one who, then, Then-in my boyhood—when their fire 70 Burn'd with a still intenser glow (For passion must, with youth, expire) E'en then who knew this iron heart In woman's weakness had a part. The mountains of Belur Taglay are a branch of the Imaus, in the southern part of Independ ent Tartary. They are celebrated for the singu. lar wildness and beauty of their valleys. (PoE, 1827.) |