Edgar Allan Poe: A Trio of Numinous Poems

Hello everyone – 

It’s the month of October, a time for Otherworldly poems and tales, so this time, I’m sharing with you a trio of numinous poems by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), who is well-known as a short-story writer in the genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy – but he is not as well-known as a poet.

“Eldorado”

 

Gaily bedight, a gallant knight,

In sunshine and in shadow,

Had journeyed long, singing a song,

In search of Eldorado.

 

But he grew old — this knight so bold —

And o’er his heart a shadow —

Fell as he found no spot of ground

That looked like Eldorado.

 

And, as his strength failed him at length,

He met a pilgrim shadow —

“Shadow,” said he, “Where can it be —

This land of Eldorado?”

 

“Over the Mountains of the Moon,

Down the Valley of the Shadow,

Ride, boldly ride,” the shade replied, —

“If you seek for Eldorado!”

 

“Evening Star”

(Editor’s Note: Poe is referring here to the planet Venus, which can appear as either the Morning Star before dawn, or as the Evening Star at dusk, depending on the alignments of Earth’s and Venus’ orbits around the Sun at any given time.)

 

‘Twas noontide of summer,

And mid-time of night;

And stars, in their orbits,

Shone pale, through the light

Of the brighter, cold Moon,

'Mid planets her slaves,

Herself in the Heavens,

Her beam on the waves.

 

I gazed awhile

On her cold smile;

Too cold- too cold for me –

There passed, as a shroud,

A fleecy cloud,

And I turned away to thee,

Proud Evening Star,

In thy glory afar,

And dearer thy beam shall be;

For joy to my heart

Is the proud part

Thou bearest in Heaven at night,

And more I admire

Thy distant fire,

Than that colder, lowly light.

 

“Israfel”

“And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.”

[Editor’s Note: In Islamic lore, it is said that the Archangel Israfel will blow the Last Trumpet at the consummation of human history. This angel is known as Uriel in Jewish and Christian traditions, where he appears as an interpreting angel to Ezra the scribe in 2 Esdras 3-14, and as the heavenly herald who was sent to warn Noah of the impending deluge in 1 Enoch 10.)

 

In Heaven a spirit doth dwell

“Whose heart-strings are a lute”;

None sing so wildly well

As the angel Israfel,

And the giddy stars (so legends tell),

Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell

Of his voice, all mute.

 

Tottering above

In her highest noon,

The enamored moon

Blushes with love,

While, to listen, the red levin

(With the rapid Pleiads, even,

Which were seven,)

Pauses in Heaven.

 

And they say (the starry choir

And the other listening things)

That Israfeli’s fire

Is owing to that lyre

By which he sits and sings —

The trembling living wire

Of those unusual strings.

 

But the skies that angel trod,

Where deep thoughts are a duty,

Where Love’s a grown-up God,

Where the Houri glances are

Imbued with all the beauty

Which we worship in a star.

 

Therefore, thou art not wrong,

Israfeli, who despisest

An unimpassioned song;

To thee the laurels belong,

Best bard, because the wisest!

Merrily live, and long!

 

The ecstasies above

With thy burning measures suit —

Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,

With the fervor of thy lute —

Well may the stars be mute!

 

Yes, Heaven is thine; but this

Is a world of sweets and sours;

Our flowers are merely — flowers,

And the shadow of thy perfect bliss

Is the sunshine of ours.

 

If I could dwell

Where Israfel

Hath dwelt, and he where I,

He might not sing so wildly well

A mortal melody,

While a bolder note than this might swell

From my lyre within the sky.

 

Mosaic of the archangel Uriel (a/k/a Israfel) in St John’s Church, Boreham Road, Warminster, Wiltshire, England. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

Until next time –

Rob