Al Aaraaf | A poem by Edgar Allan Poe, 1829

Edvard Munch, Eye in Eye, 1894

“Sound loves to revel in a summer night:
Witness the murmur of the gray twilight
That stole upon the ear, in Eyraco,
Of many a wild star-gazer long ago—
That stealeth ever on the ear of him
Who, musing, gazeth on the distance dim,
And sees the darkness coming as a cloud—
Is not its form—its voice—most palpable and loud?

But what is this?—it cometh—and it brings
A music with it—’tis the rush of wings—
A pause—and then a sweeping, falling strain,
And Nesace is in her halls again.
From the wild energy of wanton haste
Her cheeks were flushing, and her lips apart;
The zone that clung around her gentle waist
Had burst beneath the heaving of her heart.
Within the centre of that hall to breathe
She paus’d and panted, Zanthe! all beneath,
The fairy light that kiss’d her golden hair
And long’d to rest, yet could but sparkle there!”

Edgar Allan Poe, Al Aaraaf II, 1829 (excerpt)

“Al Aaraaf” is an early poem by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1829. It tells of the afterlife in a place called Al Aaraaf, inspired by A’raf as described in the Quran. At 422 lines, it is Poe’s longest poem. Poe said he wrote before he was 15.

Also:
A Dream Within a Dream | A poem by Edgar Allan Poe, 1849
Maelzel’s Chess Player / The Turk | Wolfgang von Kempelen, 1769 – Edgar Allan Poe, 1836
On [:] The Night Walkers | Edgar Allan Poe, 1841
Alone | Edgar Allan Poe, 1829