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[[This version has the changes applied]]
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1
Romance who loves to nod and sing,
With drowsy head and folded wing,
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake,
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been — a most familiar bird —
Taught me my alphabet to say —
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie
A child — with a most knowing eye.
2
Of late, eternal Condor years
So shake the Heavens on high
With tumult, as they thunder by,
I hardly have no time for idle cares
Thro’ gazing on th’ unquiet sky.
And, when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings —
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away — forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
Unless it trembled with the strings!
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[[This version gives the text as originally printed, with indications for Poe’s changes]]
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1
ROMANCE who loves to nod and sing<,> <l.c.>
With drowsy head and folded wing<,>
Among the green leaves as they shake
Far down within some shadowy lake<,>
To me a painted paroquet
Hath been — a most familiar bird —
Taught me my alphabet to say —
To lisp my very earliest word
While in the wild wood I did lie
A child — with a most knowing eye.
2
Of late, eternal Condor years
So shake the very air on high
With tumult, as they thunder by,
I hardly have had time for cares
Thro’ gazing on th’ unquiet sky!
And, when an hour with calmer wings
Its down upon my spirit flings —
That little time with lyre and rhyme
To while away — forbidden things!
My heart would feel to be a crime
>>Did it<< not >>tremble<< with the strings!
<Unless it> <trembled>
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Notes:
In the first line, Poe underlines “ROMANCE” and writes “l.c.” in the margin to the left of the poem, indicating that it should be converted to all lower case. eventually gaining the more proper title of “Romance”. This instruction was not followed for The Raven and Other Poems, however, as that edition adhered to the convention of presenting the first word of each poem in large and small upper case. In preparing the second line of the second stanza, the typesetter omitted the “s” from “Heavens.” Poe does print it with an “s” in his Broadway Journal, but did not mark the poem in his own copy of The Raven and Other Poems for any corrections, including restoring the “s,” although “Heavens” is probably the better reading.
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[S:1 - ATMPEH, 1845] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Romance (Text-05)