Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems/Preface (Romance)

Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems by Edgar Allan Poe Preface (Romance)

p. 57 (miscellaneous poems)

PREFACE. ———— 1 Romance who loves to nod and sing With drowsy head and folded wing Among the green leaves as they shake Far down within some shadowy lake To me a painted paroquet Hath been — a most familiar bird — Taught me my alphabet to say — To lisp my very earliest word While in the wild wood I did lie A child — with a most knowing eye. 2 Of late, eternal Condor years So shake the very air on high With tumult, as they thunder by, I hardly have had time for cares Thro' gazing on th' unquiet sky! And, when an hour with calmer wings Its down upon my spirit flings — That little time with lyre and rhyme To while away — forbidden things! My heart would feel to be a crime Did it not tremble with the strings!