Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/232

212 EDGAR ALLAN POE �But the skies that angel trod, �Where deep thoughts are a duty Where Love's a grown-up God �Where the Houri glances are Imbued with all the beauty �Which we worship in a star. �Therefore, thou art not wrong, �Israfeli, who despisest An unimpassioned song; To thee the laurels belong, �Best bard, because the wisest! Merrily live, and long ! �The ecstasies above �With thy burning measures suit Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love, �With the fervour of thy lute �Well may the stars be mute ! �QTes, Heaven is thine; but this �Is a world of sweets and sours ; �Our flowers are merely flowers, And the shadow of thy perfect bliss �Is the sunshine of ours. �If I could dwell Where Israfel �Hath dwelt, and he where I, He might not sing so wildly well �A mortal melody, While a bolder note than this might swell �From my lyre within the sky. �THE CITY IN THE SEA (1831) �[This is the beginning in Poe's verse of ruin from within, and also of the kind of repetition that was to become increasingly characteristic. The doom of Babylon has influenced the picture: see Revelation XVI, XVII, XVIII, XX, and Isaiah XIV. I do not think, however, that in its present final form the poem was meant to express the damnation of the wicked but rather the dethronement of Death himself and the passing of his kingdom. See Revelation XX, 14.} ��� �