In the To Helen poem (The 1848 printing), there are many things that stick out at me. First, there is references made about the moon many times in this poem. "A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven" "I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses" This next quote befuddles me LOL but it moght be a reference to the dust that rusful pours on the forest each nite. ?"The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All?all expired save thee?save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes-
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them?they were the world to me!
I saw but them?saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten" ?
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres! hmmmmm maybe there is writing on the moon in the pictures. This last quote maybe of importance but i haven't figured it out yet. "My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
And are far up in Heaven?the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still?two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!"
I found another poem by Poe called Fairy-Land which definitely has references and undertones related to the book. I will list the complete poem so you guys can make whatever ou want of it.
"Dim vales?and shadowy floods-
And cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can't discover
For the tears that drip all over!
Huge moons there wax and wane-
Again?again?again-
Every moment of the night-
Forever changing places-
And they put out the star-light
With the breath from their pale faces.
About twelve by the moon-dial,
One more filmy than the rest
(A kind which, upon trial,
They have found to be the best)
Comes down?still down?and down,
With its centre on the crown
Of a mountain's eminence,
While its wide circumference
In easy drapery falls
Over hamlets, over halls,
Wherever they may be-
O'er the strange woods?o'er the sea-
Over spirits on the wing-
Over every drowsy thing-
And buries them up quite
In a labyrinth of light-
And then, how deep!?O, deep!
Is the passion of their sleep.
In the morning they arise,
And their moony covering
Is soaring in the skies,
With the tempests as they toss,
Like?almost anything-
Or a yellow Albatross.
They use that moon no more
For the same end as before-
Videlicet, a tent-
Which I think extravagant:
Its atomies, however,
Into a shower dissever,
Of which those butterflies
Of Earth, who seek the skies,
And so come down again,
(Never-contented things!)
Have brought a specimen
Upon their quivering wings." HAVE FUN WITH IT! ?
---Nolan
