8. Naiad airs: suggestive of exquisite grace. The Naiads, in classical mythology, are water nymphs,—lovely maidens presiding over brooks and fountains.
9, 10. Two of Poe's best and most frequently quoted lines. Explain the fitness of the epithets. Originally the lines read:
To the beauty of fair Greece
And the grandeur of old Rome.
Is the change an improvement? Explain.
14. Psyche: the Greek word for "soul," and also the name of a beautiful maiden whom Cupid himself loved and wedded. Read the story in Gayley's "Classic Myths."
ISRAFEL (Page 7)
Published in editions of 1831 and 1845, and several times in magazines. See comment in the Introduction, page xxiii. Poe derived the quotation through Moore's "Lalla Rookh," altered it slightly, and interpolated the clause, "whose heart-strings are a lute"; it is from Sale's "Preliminary Discourse" to the Koran.
12. levin, or leven: an archaic word for "lightning."
13. Pleiads, or Pleiades: a group of stars in the constellation Taurus; only six stars of the group are readily visible, but legend tells of a seventh, lost. Read the account of the ancient myth in Gayley's "Classic Myths."
23. skies: the object of "trod."