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[[This version has the changes applied]]
8.
1
O! I care not that my earthly lot
Hath — little of Earth in it —
That years of love have been forgot
In the fever of a minute —
2
I heed not that the desolate
Are happier, sweet, than I —
But that you meddle with my fate
Who am a passer-by.
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[[This version gives the text as originally printed, with indications for Poe’s changes]]
8.
1
O! I care not that my earthly lot
Hath — little of Earth in it —
That years of love have been forgot
In the fever of a minute —
2
I heed not that the desolate
Are happier, sweet, than I —
But that you meddle with my fate
Who am a passer-by.
>> 3
It is not that my founts of bliss
Are gushing — strange! with tears —
Or that the thrill of a single kiss
Hath palsied many years —
4
’Tis not that the flowers of twenty springs
Which have wither’d as they rose [page 69:]
Lie dead on my heart-strings
With the weight of an age of snows.
5
Nor that the grass — O! may it thrive!
On my grave is growing or grown —
But that, while I am dead yet alive
I cannot be, lady, alone. <<
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Notes:
This copy of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems was given by Poe to his cousin, Elizabeth Herring. In making preparations for The Raven and Other Poems, Poe borrowed back this copy, and made numerous changes in poems being submitted for consideration. For the present poem, he marked stanzas 3-5 for deletion, but made no other changes. The poem was not included in the new collection.
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[S:1 - ATMP-EH, 1829 (revised, 1845)] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - To M—— (Text-03)