Edgar Allen Poe
ISRAFEL.
ISRAFEL.
I.
In Heaven a spirit both dwell
Whose heart-strings are a lute
None sing so wild so well
As the angel Israfel
And the giddy stars are mute.
II.
Tottering above
In her highest noon
The enamoured moon
Blushes with love
While, to listen, the red levin
Pauses in Heaven.
* And the angel Israfel who has the sweetest voice of all God's creatures. KORAN.
III.
And they say (the starry choir
And all the listening things)
That Israfeli's fire
Is owing to that lyre
With those unusual strings.
IV.
But the Heavens that angel trod
Where deep thoughts are a duty
Where Love is a grown god
Where Houri *glances are
Stay! turn thine eyes afar!
Imbued with all the beauty
Which we worship in yon star.
V.
Thou art not, therefore, wrong
Israfeli, who despisest
An unimpassion'd song:
To thee the laurels belong
Best bard, because the wisest.
VI.
The extacies [[ecstasies]] above
With thy burning measures suit
Thy grief if any thy love
With the fervor of thy lute
Well may the stars be mute!
VII.
Yes, Heaven is thine: but this
Is a world of sweets and sours:
Our flowers are merely flowers,
And the shadow of thy bliss
Is the sunshine of ours.
VIII.
If I did dwell where Israfel
Hath dwelt, and he where I,
He would not sing one half as well
One half as passionately,
And a stormier note than this would swell
From my lyre within the sky.
* Houri is the proper name for the virgins who await the islamic "martyrs"
It is quite possible this is a code sent using koranic references using a "singing" performance as the trigger.
I'm going to have to learn more about known coded messages from al queda that have been analyzed.