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[[v]]
[[n]]
Dim vales — and shadowy floods —
And cloudy-looking woods,
Whose forms we can’t discover
For the tears that drip all over [page 54:]
5
[[v]]
[[n]]
Huge moons there wax and wane —
Again — again — again —
Every moment of the night —
Forever changing places —
[[v]]
And they put out the star-light
10
With the breath from their pale faces.
[[v]]
About twelve by the moon-dial, [page 55:]
[[n]]
One more filmy than the rest
[[v]]
(A kind which, upon trial,
They have found to be the best)
15
[[n]]
Comes down — still down — and down
With its centre on the crown
Of a mountain's eminence,
While its wide circumference
In easy drapery falls
20
[[v]]
Over hamlets, over halls,
[[n]]
Wherever they may be —
O’er the strange woods — o’er the sea —
Over spirits on the wing —
Over every drowsy thing —
25
And buries them up quite
In a labyrinth of light —
And then, how deep! — O, deep!
Is the passion of their sleep.
[[v]]
In the morning they arise,
30
And their moony covering
Is soaring in the skies,
With the tempests as they toss,
[[n]]
Like —— almost any thing —
Or a yellow Albatross.
35
They use that moon no more
For the same end as before —
Videlicet a tent —
Which I think extravagant:
Its atomies, however,
40
Into a shower dissever,
Of which those butterflies,
Of Earth, who seek the skies, [page 56:]
And so come down again
[[v]]
(Never-contented things!)
45
Have brought a specimen
Upon their quivering wings.
(1829)
[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 53:]
1 In 1831 the following forty lines are prefixed to Fairy-Land:
Sit down beside me, Isabel,
Here, dearest, where the moonbeam fell
Just now so fairy-like and well.
Now thou art dress’d for paradise!
I am star-stricken with thine eyes!
My soul is lolling on thy sighs!
Thy hair is lifted by the moon
Like flowers by the low breath of June!
Sit down, sit down — how came we here?
Or is it all but a dream, my dear?
You know that most enormous flower —
That rose — that what d’ye call it — that hung
Up like a dog-star in this bower —
To-day (the wind blew, and) it swung
So impudently in my face,
So like a thing alive you know,
I tore it from its pride of place
And shook it into pieces — so
Be all ingratitude requited.
The winds ran off with it delighted,
And, thro’ the opening left, as soon
As she threw off her cloak, yon moon
Has sent a ray down with a tune.
And this ray is a fairy ray —
Did you not say so, Isabel?
How fantastically it fell
With a spiral twist and a swell,
And over the wet grass rippled away
With a tinkling like a bell!
In my own country all the way
We can discover a moon ray
Which thro’ some tatter’d curtain pries
Into the darkness of a room,
Is by (the very source of gloom)
The motes, and dust, and flies,
On which it trembles and lies
Like joy upon sorrow!
O, when will come the morrow?
Isabel! do you not fear
The night and the wonders here?
[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 54:]
5 there: see! (1831).
9 And: How (1831).
11-29 For these lines, 1831 substitutes the following:
Lo! one is coming down
With its centre on the crown
Of a mountain's eminence!
Down — still down — and down —
Now deep shall be — O deep!
The passion of our sleep!
For that wide circumference
In easy drapery falls
Drowsily over halls —
Over ruin’d walls —
Over waterfalls,
(Silent waterfalls!)
O’re the strange woods — o’er the sea —
Alas! over the sea!
[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 55:]
13 kind: sort (1829, B. G. M.).
20 over: and rich (1829, B. G. M.).
29-46 Omitted in 1831.
[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 56:]
44 Never-contented: The unbelieving (1829, B. G. M.).
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - KCP, 1917] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Fairy-Land (ed. K. Campbell, 1917)