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Text: Edgar Allan Poe, "Imitation," Tamerlane and Other Poems, 1827, pp. 29-30





[page 29, continued:]

IMITATION.
 
A dark unfathom'd tide
Of interminable pride —
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem; [page 30:]
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild, and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen, [[.]]
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision on [[of]] my spirit;
Those thoughts I would controul, [[control]]
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sight [[sigh]] as it pass'd on,
I care not tho' it perish
With a thought I then did cherish, [[.]]









Notes:

The imitation is of Byron, especially his poems "Dream" and "Manfred."

Most scholars consider this poem an early version of "A Dream Within a Dream," which may explain why the poem was never printed again during Poe's lifetime.







 
[S:2 - TAOP, 1827 (fac, 1941)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Imitation (A)