Poe was in attendance or at least heard of the show. Poe may have identified with the title character. He used "TAMERLANE" as a pseudonym attached to two of his poems on their first publication, "Fanny" and "To ——", both published in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter in 1833. Publication history "Tamerlane" was first published in Poe's earliest poetry collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems. The "little volume", as Poe referred to it in the preface, consists of 10 poems. This original version of the poem contained 406 lines. In an 1845 publication, it had been edited to only 234. Tamerlane and Other Poems, which appeared in June 1827, was forty pages long and credited only by "a Bostonian". In its initial publication in the collection Tamerlane and Other Poems, Poe included endnotes explaining some of his allusions from "Tamerlane". He also confesses early on that he knows little about the historical Tamerlane, "and with that little, I have taken the full liberty of a poet." These endnotes do not appear in any other collection that includes "Tamerlane". In 1829, between the poem's first and second publications, Poe sent it along with "Al Aaraaf" for review by influential critic John Neal in his magazine The Yankee. In recognition of Neal's encouragement, Poe expressed desire to dedicate Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems to him, but Neal insisted such a dedication would be an injury to both Poe and the publication. Poe instead dedicated just "Tamerlane" within the volume to Neal. References External links Original 1829 version of "Tamerlane" at www.eapoe.org 1827 poems Poetry by Edgar Allan Poe Cultural depictions of Timur Works published anonymously