d of sweets and sours." We have the good and the bad and must deal with it in a physical nature and not in a song. Poe then refers to flowers as just flowers, possibly a verbal jab at Emerson. Nature is beautiful, but there can be no hidden meanings in trees, or rocks, or rivers. The real beauty comes from within the soul and from above. Israfel's shadow and the "perfect bliss" of his existence, however, does bring some joy into our lives. His song, although not fully understood, does give us some comfort. At the conclusion, Poe wishes to exchange places with Israfel so that he may understand the heavenly songs and allow Israfel to live on Earth where he would only be able to sing a "mortal melody". He would then expierience, first hand, the futilety of attempting to capture the essence of true emotion on paper. "While a bolder note than this might swell, from my lyre within the sky." Poe's own song would dwarf Israfel's as the latters now consumes Poe's work and his outburst of emotion would swell the seams of heaven.Again, this is not your typical work by Edgar Allan Poe and were it read to high school students I doubt that any of them would beable to acknowledge it as so. It does, however, offer a differing veiw of a man that has been referred to as the "Father of the American Horror Story." It ,indeed, offers many aspects of the character of Edgar Allan Poe: his unbridled passion, his creativity and his dislike of the Transcendentalist movement as a whole. Works CitedAllen, Harvey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. Farrar & Rinehart Inc.NewYork. 1934.Poe, Edgar A. "Israfel." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. W.W. Norton& Company. New York. 1995...
