1827 · normalized-reading-transcription

Imitation

Edgar Allan Poe

Tamerlane and Other Poems, Boston: Calvin F. S. Thomas, pp. 29–30.

Earlier form; not the 1849 poem. Original 1827 scans 033–034 are included.

A dark unfathom'd tide
Of interminable pride —
A mystery, and a dream,
Should my early life seem;
I say that dream was fraught
With a wild, and waking thought
Of beings that have been,
Which my spirit hath not seen,
Had I let them pass me by,
With a dreaming eye!
Let none of earth inherit
That vision on my spirit;
Those thoughts I would controul ,
As a spell upon his soul:
For that bright hope at last
And that light time have past,
And my worldly rest hath gone
With a sight as it pass'd on,
I care not tho' it perish
With a thought I then did cherish,

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Poem text only; modern editorial notes and bracketed emendations excluded. Original spellings retained. Page markers removed; spaces normalized; typographic small capitals regularized. Italics, manuscript underlining and exact type spacing are not encoded. See scans for diplomatic evidence.

Transcription reference: Poe Society source citation (external)