Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. Killis Campbell), “Sonnet — To Science,” The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ginn and Company, 1917, pp. 33-34


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[page 33, continued:]

SONNET — TO SCIENCE   [[v]]

[[v]]

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art!

[[v]]

Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes.

[[v]]

Why preyest thou thus upon the poet's heart,

Vulture, whose wings are dull realities?

5

[[v]]

How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise,

Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering

To seek for treasure in the jewelled skies

[[v]]

[[n]]

Albeit he soared with an undaunted wing?

[[n]]

Hast thou not dragged Diana from her car?

10

And driven the Hamadryad from the wood [page 34:]

[[v]]

[[n]]

To seek a shelter in some happier star?

[[v]]

[[n]]

Hast thou not torn the Naiad from her flood,

[[v]]

The Elfin from the green grass, and from me

[[v]]

The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?

(1829)

 


[[Variants]]

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 33:]

Title Omitted in 1829, in 1831 (where the poem serves as a prelude to Al Aaraaf), and in Graham's (where it is prefixed to The Island of the Fay). Entitled simply “Sonnet” in S. E. P., Casket, S. L. M.

1 true: meet (1829, S. E. P., Casket, 1831, S. L. M.).

2 peering: piercing (S. E. P., Casket).

3 the: thy (S. E. P., Casket).

5 should: shall (S. E. P., Casket).

8 soared: soar (1829, S.E. P., Casket, 1831, S. L. M.); he: be (Graham's).

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 34:]

11 Hast thou not spoilt a story in each star? (Graham's); a: for (S. E. P., Casket).

12 The gentle Naiad from her fountain flood (1829, 1831, S. L. M.); The gentle Nais from the fountain flood (S. E. P., Casket).

13 green grass: greenwood (S E. P., Casket); The elfin from the grass? the dainty fay (Graham's).

14 summer: summer's (S. E. P., Casket); tamarind tree: shrubbery (1829, S. E. P., Casket, 1831, S. L. M.); The witch, the sprite, the goblin — where are they? (Graham's).

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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[S:0 - KCP, 1917] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Sonnet --- To Science (ed. K. Campbell, 1917)