Selections from Poe Part 22

107, 108. In these last lines the allegory is fully revealed.

EULALIE (Page 29)

Published in 1845 with the subt.i.tle, "A Song."

19. Astarte. See note on line 37 of "Ulalume," page 189.

TO M.L. S----- (Page 30)

Published March 13, 1847, and addressed to Mrs. Marie Louise Shew, who had been a veritable angel of mercy in the Poe home. She relieved the poverty and helped to care for Virginia (who died January 29), and afterward nursed Poe himself during his severe illness. Mrs. Shew had had some medical training and probably saved Poe's life. This brief poem is instinct with a grat.i.tude and reverence easy to understand, and is, for Poe, unusually spontaneous.

ULALUME (Page 30)

Published in December, 1847, and in January, 1848. The earlier form contained an additional stanza, afterward wisely omitted. Read the comment on the poem in the Introduction, pages xxiv-xxv.

5. Immemorial: properly means extending indefinitely into the past. Poe may mean that the year has seemed endless to him, but apparently he uses the word in the sense of memorable.

6, 7. Auber rhymes with October, Weir with year; the names were coined by Poe for rhyme and tone color. Note the resemblance of "Weir" to "weird."

8. tarn: a small mountain lake. It is used provincially in England to mean a boggy or marshy tract. Poe used the word to signify a dark, stagnant pool. Cf. "The Fall of the House of Usher," page 49.

11. cypress. What is its significance?

12. Psyche: soul. Cf. note on line 14 of "To Helen," page 183.

14. scoriac: a very rare word, from _scoria_ (lava).

16. Yaanek: another specially coined word.

35. crescent: suggesting hope.

37, 39. Astarte: a Phoenician G.o.ddess, as the deity of love corresponding to Venus (Aphrodite), and as moon G.o.ddess to Dian, or Diana (Artemis). But Diana was chaste and cold to the advances of lovers, which explains "she (Astarte) is warmer than Dian."

43. where the worm never dies: implies the gnawing of unending grief. Cf. Isaiah lxvi. 24, and Mark ix. 44, 46, 48.

44. The Lion: the constellation Leo.

64. sibyllic: usually "sibylline," prophetic; from "sibyl."

Consult Gayley's "Cla.s.sic Myths."

179. legended tomb: having on it an inscription.

TO ---- ---- (Page 33)

Published in March, 1848, and is another tribute to Mrs. Shew. See note on "To M.L. S-----," page 188.

9-10. The quotation is from George Peele's "David and Bethsabe," an English drama published in 1599:

Or let the dew be sweeter far than that That hangs, like chains of pearl, on Hermon hill.

14-15. Cf. the poem "Israfel," and the notes on it.

AN ENIGMA (Page 34)

Published in March, 1848. To find the name, read the first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second line, and so on. In form this is a sonnet irregular in rhyme scheme.

1. Solomon Don Dunce: a fanciful name for a stupid person.

6. Petrarchan stuff: of or by Petrarch (1304-1374), a famous Italian writer of sonnets.

10. tuckermanities: a contemptuous allusion to the poetic efforts of Henry T. Tuckerman, a New England writer of the day.

14. dear names: Sarah Anna Lewis, a verse writer of the day, whom Poe admired.

TO HELEN (Page 35)

Published in November, 1848; addressed to Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman (see Introduction, page xvii). Although her engagement to marry Poe was broken off, she continued to admire him and was faithful to his memory after his death. The poem was written before Poe met Mrs.

Whitman, and is said to have been suggested by the poet's having caught a glimpse of the lady walking in a garden by moonlight.

48. Dian: Diana, the moon G.o.ddess.

66. Venuses: refers at once to the planet Venus and to Venus, G.o.ddess of love.

A VALENTINE (Page 37)

Published in 1849. The name is found as in "An Enigma," by reading the first letter of the first line, the second of the second, and so on.

2. twins of Leda: Castor and Pollux, two stars in the constellation Gemini. For the myth consult Gayley's "Cla.s.sic Myths."

3. her own sweet name: Frances Sargent Osgood. See note on the lines "To F---- ," page 185.

10. Gordian knot. Explain this; consult an encyclopedia.

14. perdus: lost, a French word introduced to rhyme with "too."

17. lying: used in a double sense.

18. Mendez Ferdinando Pinto, a Portuguese traveler (1509-1583), was said to have been the first white man to visit j.a.pan. He wrote an account of his travels, which at the time was considered mere romancing.