Sonnet to Zante:
Fair isle, that from the fairest of all flowers,
Thy gentlest of all gentle names dost take!
How many memories of what radiant hours
At sight of thee and thine at once awake!
How many scenes of what departed bliss!
How many thoughts of what entombed hopes!
How many visions of a maiden that is
No more- no more upon thy verdant slopes!
No more! alas, that magical sad sound
Transforming all! Thy charms shall please no more-
Thy memory no more! Accursed ground
Henceforth I hold thy flower-enameled shore,
O hyacinthine isle! O purple Zante!
"Isola d'oro! Fior di Levante!"
A series of coincidences brought about the decoding first of the Sonnet and, five years later, of Al Aaraaf.
Inbetween following "classic" riddles, all interrelated and very relevant, were encounterd and finally solved:
D'Anastasy, the "armenian" alchemy papyri collector, consul(1826-?) of Sweden and Norway to Egypt
Cagliostro -Balsamo and "his" Rite of Mizraim
Comte Saint Germain, minister of war of Luis XV and XVI
The designer of the great seal of the USA, a friend and advisor of Ben.Franklin and G. Washington .
The affair of the queen's necklace (1784-1785) that brought about the french revolution (1789-1790)
The Stuart jewels "discovered" by Walter Scott.
A few words on the poems themselves:
Both refer to Zante* and "tell" on Edgar's younger and romantic years that ended some years before the Sonnet was written.
Hence the difference in style: Aaraaf written propably 1826-28 , secretive and elaborated, lengthy, almost epic, a product of the mind, the Sonnet, written in a day, end of 1836, short and sentimental, a product of a troubled yet sincere soul mourning a death that deeply affected him.
The Sonnet refers indeed to the death of young woman, wife of a man Poe had to contact during his diplomatic mission to the Levant early 1827. They greatly impressed Poe and hence, when he learned of the 1835 murder that included both her and other members of the man's family, his world totally collapsed.
Will be answering posts by members who have studied Edgar's life and poetry and raise specific questions on the two poems only.
Will not be revealing details or solutions of said riddles: A book will hopefully be published once a competent (and willing and daring) editor-publisher is found and this information will onlt be revealed there.
*After the fall of Venice to the french, a succesion of protectors ruled the island of Zante (jacobine french and russians-allies of the Ottomans then- imperial napoleonic french and finally english 1809). Zante joined Modern Greece in 1864.
Greece was liberated after four centuries of Ottoman occupation by the war for independence 1821-1827.