HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Tamerlane

by Edgar Allan Poe

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
911,976,628 (3.67)None
Tamerlane and Other Poems is the first book of poetry that Edgar Allan Poe ever published. Little is known about the publisher of the volume and Poe is said to have published it at his own expense in 1827, when "the poet had not completed his fourteenth year." Although it is unlikely that the poet was younger than fourteen at the time the book was published, this volume is nonetheless valuable to us in that it is one of the few relics of Poe juvenilia that we have at our disposal. Original editions of this book have fetched tens of thousands of dollars at auction and few first editions are currently in existence.… (more)
None
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

Poe originally published this poem in 1829 in [b:Tamerlane and Other Poems|8598142|Tamerlane and Other Poems|Edgar Allan Poe|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387751132s/8598142.jpg|13467927] (50 copies printed) authored by "A Bostonian." The poem had 406 lines on publication. In 1845, it was republished sans endnotes with only 234 lines. So naturally I was looking for an example of lost/nearly lost literature. But, having read it, I suspect Poe probably edited it down himself; the first half of the original poem is flat as flat can be. There is some lovely poetry in here, though.

This stood out to me:

The world — its joy — its share of pain
Which I felt not — its bodied forms
Of varied being, which contain
The bodiless spirits of the storms,
The sunshine, and the calm — the ideal
And fleeting vanities of dreams,
Fearfully beautiful! the real
Nothings of mid-day waking life —
Of an enchanted life, which seems,
Now as I look back, the strife
Of some ill demon, with a power
Which left me in an evil hour,
All that I felt, or saw, or thought,
Crowding, confused became
(With thine unearthly beauty fraught)
Thou — and the nothing of a name.


And this:

‘Tis thus when the lovely summer sun
Of our boyhood, his course hath run:
For all we live to know — is known;
And all we seek to keep — hath flown;
With the noon-day beauty, which is all.
Let life, then, as the day-flow’r, fall —
The trancient, passionate day-flow’r,
Withering at the ev’ning hour.


But then the last stanza just does not work for me. The idea is there, but the language fails. Ah, well. It's Poe. It's hard to complain.

Read online at: http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/tamerlna.htm ( )
  amyotheramy | May 11, 2021 |
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Tamerlane and Other Poems is the first book of poetry that Edgar Allan Poe ever published. Little is known about the publisher of the volume and Poe is said to have published it at his own expense in 1827, when "the poet had not completed his fourteenth year." Although it is unlikely that the poet was younger than fourteen at the time the book was published, this volume is nonetheless valuable to us in that it is one of the few relics of Poe juvenilia that we have at our disposal. Original editions of this book have fetched tens of thousands of dollars at auction and few first editions are currently in existence.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.67)
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3 2
3.5
4
4.5
5 1

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,233,282 books! | Top bar: Always visible