Poe's footnotes
[1] On the fair Capo Deucato: On Santa Maura — olim Deucadia.
[2] Of her who lov'd a mortal: Sappho.
[3] And gemmy flower, of Trebizond misnam'd: This flower is much noticed by Lewehoeck and Tournefort. The bee, feeding upon its blossom, becomes intoxicated.
[4] Clytia: The Chrysanthemum Peruvianum, or, to employ a better-known term – the turnsol which turns continually towards the sun, covers itself, like Peru, the country from which it comes, with dewy clouds which cool and refresh its flowers during the most violent heat of the day. — B. de. St. Pierre.
[5] Valisnerian lotus: There is found, in the Rhone, a beautiful lily of the Valisnerian kind. Its stem will stretch to the length of three or four feet – thus preserving its head above the water in the swellings of the river.
[6] And thy most lovely purple perfume: The Hyacinth.
[7] Indian Cupid: It is a fiction of the Indians, that Cupid was first seen floating in one of these down the river Ganges – and that he still loves the cradle of his childhood.
[8] To bear the Goddess' song, in odours, up to Heaven: And golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints. — Rev. St. John.
[9] A model of their own: The Humanitarians held that God was to be understood as having really a human form. — Vide Clarke's Sermons, vol. 1, page 26, fol. edit.
The drift of Milton's argument, leads him to employ language which would appear at first sight, to verge upon their doctrine; but it will be seen immediately, that he guards himself against the charge of having adopted one of the most ignorant errors of the dark ages of the church. — Dr. Sumner's Notes on Milton's Christian Doctrine.
This opinion, in spite of many testimonies to the contrary, could never have been very general. Audeus, a Syrian of Messopotamia, was condemned for the opinion, as heretical. He lived in the beginning of the 4th century. His disciples were called Anthropomorphites. — Vide Du Pin.
Among Milton's poems are these lines:–
Dicite sacrorum præsides nemorum Deæ, &c.
Quis ille primus cujus ex imagine
Natura solers finxit humanum genus?
Eternus, incorruptus, æquævus polo
Unusque et universus exemplar Dei. — And afterwards,
Non cui profundum Cæcius lumen dedit
Dircæus augur vidit hunc alto sinu, &c.
[10] By winged Fantasy:
Seltsamen Tochter Jovia
Seinem Schosskinde
Der Phantasie. — Goethe.
[11] Sightless: too small to be seen. — Legge.
[12] Like fire-flies: I have often noticed a peculiar movement of the fire-fly – They will collect in a body and fly off, from a common centre into innumerable radii.
[13] Her Therasaean reign: Therasæa, or Therasea, the island mentioned by Seneca, which, in a moment, arose from the sea to the eyes of astonished mariners.
[14] Some star which, from the ruin'd roof
Of shak'd Olympus, by mischance, did fall — Milton.
[15] Voltaire, in speaking of Persepolis, says, «Je conmois bien 'admiration qu'inspirent ces ruins – mais un palais erige au pied du'ne chaine des rochers sterils – peut il etre un chef doevure des arts!» — Voila les arguments de M. Voltaire.
[16] O! the wave: Ula Deguisi is the Turkish appellation; but, on its own shores, it is called Bahar Loth, or Almotanah. There were undoubtedly more than two cities engulphed in the «dead sea.» In the valley of Siddim were five – Adrah, Zeboin, Zoar, Sodom and Gomorrah. Stephen of Byzantium mentions eight, and Strabo thirteen, (engulphed) — but the last is out of all reason.
It is said, (Tacitus, Strabo, Josephus, Daniel of St. Saba, Nau, Maundrell, Troilo, D'Arvicus) that, after an excessive drought, the vestiges of columns, walls, &c. are seen above the surface. At any season, such remains may be discover'd by looking down into the transparent lake, and at such distances as would argue the existence of many settlements in the space now usurped by the «Asphaltites.»
[17] Eyraco: Chaldea.
[18] Most palpable and loud: I have often thought I could distinctly hear the sound of the darkness as it stole over the horizon.
[19] Young flowers were whispering in melody: Fairies use flowers for their charactery. — Merry Wives of Windsor. [William Shakespeare]
[20] The moonbeam: In Scripture is this passage – «The sun shall not harm thee by day, nor the moon by night.» It is, perhaps, not generally known that the moon, in Egypt, has the effect of producing blindness to those who sleep with the face exposed to its rays, to which circumstance the passage evidently alludes.
[21] Like the lone Albatross: The Albatross is said to sleep on the wing.
[22] The murmur that springs: I met with this idea in an old English tale, which I am now unable to obtain and quote from memory:– «The verie essence and, as it were, springe-heade, and origine of all musiche is the verie pleasaunte sounde which the trees of the forest do make when they growe.»
[23] The wild bee will not sleep in the shade if there be moonlight.
The rhyme in this verse, as in one about 60 lines before, has an appearance of affectation. It is, however, imitated from Sir W. Scott, or rather from Claud Halcro – in whose mouth I admired its effect.
O! were there an island,
Tho' ever so wild
Where woman might smile, and
No man be beguil'd, &c.
[24] Apart from Heaven's Eternity: With the Arabian there is a medium between Heaven and Hell, where men suffer no punishment, but yet do not attain that tranquil and even happiness which they suppose to be characteristic of heavenly enjoyment.
Un no rompido sueño –
Un dia puro – allegre – libre
Quiera –
Libre de amor – de zelo –
De odio – de esperanza – de rezelo.
—Luis Ponce de León.
Sorrow is not excluded from «Al Aaraaf», but it is that sorrow which the living love to cherish for the dead, and which, in some minds, resembles the delirium of opium. The passionate excitement of Love and the buoyancy of spirit attendant upon intoxication are its less holy pleasures – the price of which, to those souls who make choice of «Al Aaraaf» as their residence after life, is final death and annihilation.
[25] Tears of perfect moan:
There be tears of perfect moan
Wept for thee in Helicon. — Milton.
[26] A proud temple call'd the Parthenon: It was entire in 1687 – the most elevated spot in Athens.
[27] Thy glowing bosom:
Shadowing more beauty in their airy brows
Than have the white breasts of the Queen of Love. — Marlowe.
[28] Pennon: for pinion — Milton. | 
