Note: "This poem was attributed to Poe by Thomas Ollive Mabbott in 1939, and again in 1969. The original manuscript supposedly hung on the wall of the Washington Tavern in Lowell, Massachusetts for many years. It was apparently last seen around 1892. It was recalled from memory by a former bartender there about 1939. Although of questionable origin, the attribution has some merit and has not been seriously opposed." — quoted from the poems page on the website http://www.eapoe.org/works/poems/alea.htm which is the website for the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. This page also briefly discuses possible verse variations.