Text: Edgar Allan Poe, “Romance” (Study Text)


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Texts Represented:


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[page 57, unnumbered:]

Title: {{1829-01: PREFACE //1845-02: Romance }} .

Rule: ————

Stanza: 1

Line-01-001 {{1829-01: ROMANCE //1845-02: Romance }} who loves to nod and sing {{1845-02: , }}

Line-01-002 With drowsy head and folded wing {{1845-02: , }}

Line-01-003 Among the green leaves as they shake

Line-01-004 Far down within some shadowy lake {{1845-02: , }}

Line-01-005 To me a painted paroquet

Line-01-006 Hath been — a most familiar bird —

Line-01-007 Taught me my alphabet to say —

Line-01-008 To lisp my very earliest word

Line-01-009 While in the wild wood I did lie

Line-01-010 A child — with a most knowing eye.

Stanza: 2

Line-01-011 Of late, eternal Condor years

Line-01-012 So shake the very {{1829-01: air //1845-02: Heavens }} on high

Line-01-013 With tumult, as they thunder by,

Line-01-014 I {{1829-01: hardly }} have {{1829-01: had //1845-02: no }} time for {{1845-02: idle }} cares

Line-01-015 Thro’ gazing on th’ unquiet sky {{1829-01: ! //1845-02: . }}

Line-01-016 And, when an hour with calmer wings

Line-01-017 Its down upon my spirit flings —

Line-01-018 That little time with lyre and rhyme

Line-01-019 To while away — forbidden things!

Line-01-020 My heart would feel to be a crime

Line-01-021 {{1829-01: Did it //1845-02: Unless it }} not {{1829-01: tremble //1845-02: trembled }} with the strings!


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Notes:

For an explanation of the formatting used in this Study Text, see editorial policies and methods. This format is very much an experiment, particularly for poetry. For the version with changes applied, see the full poem.

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:0 - comparative] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Poems - Romance (Study Text - ATMP-EH)