Of those who shall widows and orphans be, A boat with a starving crew — For hunger they howled and swore; While the blood from a fellow's veins they drew I came upon them with rush and roar Two ships in a fearful fight — I came upon them no time for flight A wretch on a single plank — And I tossed him on the shore A night and a day of the sea he drank, MAGICIAN Storm spirit — go on thy path The spirit has spread his wings — And comes on the sea with a rush of wrath, And over the earth his winds he flings — A d o er t e e rth or top or tay — way. P TRANSLATION (Attributed to Poe) HYMN TO ARISTOGEITON AND HARMODIUS [Southern Literary Messenger, December. I835.] I Wreathed in myrtle, my sword I'll conceal, Like those champions devoted and brave, When they plunged in the tyrant their steel, And to Athens deliverance gave. II Beloved heroes! your deathless souls roam In the joy breathing isles of the blest; Where the mighty of old have their home — Where Achilles and Diomed rest. III In fresh myrtle my blade I 'll entwine, Like Harmodius, the gallant and good, When he made at the tutelar shrine A libation of Tyranny's blood. IV Ye deliverers of Athens from shame! Embalmed in their echoing songs! THE MAMMOTH SQUASH BY EDGAR A. POE [W. M. Griswold's Correspondence of R. W. Griswold.] Green and specked with spots of golden, Since the time of Cain and Abel, Never such a vegetable, So with odors sweetest laden Thus our halls appearance made in. Who To afford my soul nepenthe? Rude men seeing thee, say "Gosh! Says, while total silence reigns, (Grim silence, darkling o'er) "This may perchance be but the skull Of Arthur Cleveland Coxe so dull Its streaked, yellow flesh — his brains." Note The above is prefaced by the following: "In October, 1845, the literary world was amused by a clever article in T. Dunn English's Magazine, The Aristidean, a part of which I reprint as it indicates, more or less accurately, the prevailing opinion of the authors mentioned. "Anxious to present our readers with the best specimens of the poetry of this country, we addressed notes to various of our poets, requesting them to furnish us, without charge, the means of fulfilling our desire. This, we conceived, to be a very modest request. To our surprise, some of these notes were returned, and others were retained, but no reply made. To some we received answers, with the required poems. We print, below, the whole of the latter. Our readers will enjoy these sublime effusions.'" Then follow letters and poems from J. Pierpont, C. J. Peterson, Geo. P. Morris, and J. G. Whittier, with the following burlesque: "New York City, Sept. 28, 1845. "My Dear Sir: For old acquaintance' sake, I comply with your request; but your attempt will be a failure. Reasoning a priori, I could demonstrate that it cannot succeed. But I will not waste my logic on an obstinate man. "Your obedient servant, "Edgar A. Poe." OH, TEMPORA! OH, MORES! The Baltimore No Name Magazine of October, 1889, printed the following as an unpublished poem by Poe: "The following verses which have never before appeared in print were written by Edgar Allan Poe at the age of seventeen, and were for more than half a century in the possession of the late John H. Mackenzie 1 of Henrico County, Virginia, whose mother adopted Rosalie Poe, Edgar's sister, at the same time that Edgar was adopted by Mrs. Allan of Richmond. The satire is interesting as perhaps the earliest of Poe's writings known to exist. The luckless Pitts, lampooned by Poe, was a clerk in the leading fashionable dry-goods store of Richmond at the time, and was paying court to a youthful belle of the period who afterwards married a prominent Virginia politician and member of Congress, and who sometimes smiled dans sa premiere jeunesse on the wayward young Edgar with the bright eyes and hyacinthine curls. Doubtless that lady's escritoire contained many a woful ballad and lovesick sonnet of the precocious madcap. The frequent use of parliamentary phrases, and the mention of member's claws and member's logic shows that 'Oh, Temporal Oh, Mores!' was written chiefly for the ridicule of Pitts in the eyes of certain members of the Virginia legislature who were then boarding in the same house with him. "All the parties in any manner connected with this lamthe fair lady, the distinguished M. C., the author and his victim have long since passed away, and its publication now can wound the sensibility of no human being, poon 1 He was a youthful companion of Poe. |