Text: Edgar Allan Poe (ed. Killis Campbell), “For Annie,” The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, Ginn and Company, 1917, pp. 129-133


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[page 129, continued:]

FOR ANNIE

[[n]]

Thank Heaven! the crisis —

The danger is past,

And the lingering illness

Is over at last —

5

[[n]]

And the fever called “Living”

Is conquered at last.

Sadly, I know

[[v]]

I am shorn of my strength,

And no muscle I move

10

As I lie at full length —

But no matter! — I feel

I am better at length.

And I rest so composedly

Now, in my bed, [page 130:]

15

That any beholder

[[n]]

Might fancy me dead —

Might start at beholding me,

[[v]]

Thinking me dead.

The moaning and groaning,

20

The sighing and sobbing,

[[v]]

Are quieted now,

[[v]]

With that horrible throbbing

At heart: — ah that horrible,

Horrible throbbing!

25

The sickness — the nausea —

The pitiless pain —

Have ceased with the fever

That maddened my brain —

With the fever called “Living”

30

That burned in my brain.

[[v]]

And oh! of all tortures

That torture the worst

Has abated — the terrible

Torture of thirst

35

For the naphthaline river

[[v]]

Of Passion accurst: —

I have drank of a water

That quenches all thirst: —

[[n]]

Of a water that flows,

40

With a lullaby sound, [page 131:]

[[v]]

From a spring but a very few

Feet under ground —

From a cavern not very far

Down under ground.

45

[[n]]

And ah! let it never

Be foolishly said

That my room it is gloomy

[[v]]

And narrow my bed;

For man never slept

50

In a different bed —

And, to sleep, you must slumber

In just such a bed.

My tantalized spirit

Here blandly reposes,

55

Forgetting, or never

[[n]]

Regretting, its roses —

Its old agitations

Of myrtles and roses:

For now, while so quietly

60

Lying, it fancies

A holier odor

About it, of pansies —

[[n]]

A rosemary odor,

Commingled with pansies —

65

With rue and the beautiful

[[n]]

Puritan pansies.

And so it lies happily,

Bathing in many [page 132:]

[[v]]

A dream of the truth

70

And the beauty of Annie —

Drowned in a bath

Of the tresses of Annie.

She tenderly kissed me,

She fondly caressed,

75

[[v]]

[[n]]

And then I fell gently

To sleep on her breast —

Deeply to sleep

From the heaven of her breast.

When the light was extinguished,

80

She covered me warm,

And she prayed to the angels

To keep me from harm —

[[n]]

To the queen of the angels

To shield me from harm.

85

And I lie so composedly,

[[n]]

Now, in my bed,

(Knowing her love)

[[n]]

That you fancy me dead —

And I rest so contentedly,

90

[[n]]

Now, in my bed,

(With her love at my breast)

That you fancy me dead —

That you shudder to look at me,

Thinking me dead: —

95

But my heart it is brighter

Than all of the many [page 133:]

[[v]]

Stars in the sky,

For it sparkles with Annie —

[[v]]

It glows with the light

100

Of the love of my Annie —

With the thought of the light

Of the eyes of my Annie.

(1849)

 


[[Variants]]

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 129:]

8 I am: Transposed to end of line 7 in F.O.U.

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 130:]

18 F. O. U. transposes the fifth stanza (lines 25-30) to follow this line.

22 With that: F. O. U. substitutes and the, and transposes to the end of line 21.

23 ah: O (F. O. U.).

31 oh: ah (F. O. U.).

36 Passion: glory (F. O. U.).

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 131:]

41 spring but: fountain (F. O. U.).

48 Be: Transposed to the end of line 45 in F. O. U.

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 132:]

69 truth: love (F. O. U.).

75 From the: Transposed to end of line 77 in F. O. U.

[The following variants appear at the bottom of page 133:]

97 in: of (F. O. U., H.J.); sky: heaven (F. O. U.).

99 light: fire (F. O. U.).

 


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Notes:

None.

 

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