NOTES AND VARIORUM TEXT

OF THE POEMS

THE Sources of the text for E. A. Poe's poems are the editions published by him in 1827, 1829, 1831, and 1845; the manuscripts of poems in Poe's own hand; copy of 1829 Poems with corrections made in Poe's hand; the magazines and newspapers to which he contributed poems, viz.:

:

The Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette; The Philadelphia Casket; The Baltimore Saturday Morning Visitor; Richmond Southern Literary Messenger; Godey's Lady's Book; Baltimore American Museum; Burton's Gentleman's Magazine; Graham's Magazine; Philadelphia Saturday Museum; Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post; The New York Evening Mirror; New York Broadway Journal; New York Literary Emporium; New York American Whig Review; The London Critic; New York Missionary Memorial; New York Literary World; New York Home Journal; Sartain's Union Magazine; New York Union Magazine; Boston Flag of Our Union; New York Tribune; Philadelphia Leaflets of Memory; Richmond Examiner; Richmond Whig; Griswold's 1850 poems and "Poets and Poetry of America," 1842 and 1855. The manuscript sources superior to the texts are the J. Lorimer Graham copy of the 1845 poems, with corrections in Poe's hand, and the F. W. Thomas manuscript Recollections of E. A. Poe, with poems contributed to the Richmond Examiner, corrected in proof in Poe's hand shortly before his death. The editions of Poems issued by Poe were:

1827

TAMERLANE / AND / OTHER POEMS / BY A BOSTONIAN Young heads are giddy and young hearts are warm

And make mistakes for manhood to reform. - COWPER.

...

Boston./ CALVIN F. S. THOMAS PRINTER / 1827. Collation: Title, p. 1; verso blank, p. 2; Preface, pp. 3-4; TAMERLANE, pp. 5-21; verso blank, p. 22; half title, Fugitive Pieces, p. 23; verso blank, p. 24; Fugitive Pieces, pp. 25-34; half title, Notes, p. 35;

verso blank, p. 36; Notes, pp. 37-40. Contents: Tamerlane; Fugitive Pieces: To —; Dreams; Visit of the Dead; Evening Star; Imitation; Communion with Nature; A wilder'd being from my birth; The happiest day - the happiest hour; The Lake; Author's Notes (To Tamerlane). The volume measures 6.37 by 4.13 inches, and was issued as a pamphlet in yellow covers. Only three copies are known. One is in the British Museum, and the other two are in the library of a New York collector. Mr. R. H. Shepherd made a reprint of the British Museum copy in 1884, with corrections of misprints in a separate list.

The preface reads as follows: "The greater part of the poems which compose this little volume were written in the year 1821-2, when the author had not completed his fourteenth year. They were of course not intended for publication; why they are now published concerns no one but himself. Of the smaller pieces very little need be said: They perhaps savor too much of egotism; but they were written by one too young to have any knowledge of the world but from his own breast.

"In 'Tamerlane' he has endeavored to expose the folly of even risking the best feelings of the heart at the shrine of Ambition. He is conscious that in this there are many faults (besides that of the general character of the poems), which he flatters himself he could, with little trouble, have corrected, but unlike many of his predecessors, has been too fond of his early productions to amend them in his old age.

"He will not say that he is indifferent as to the success of these Poems - it might stimulate him to other attempts — but he can safely assert that failure will not at all influence him in a resolution already adopted. This is challenging criticism — let it be so. Nos haec novimus esse nihil."

1829

AL AARAAF, / TAMERLANE, / AND / MINOR POEMS / (Rule) BY EDGAR A. POE. / (Rule) BALTIMORE: / HATCH & DUNNING / (Rule) 1829.

Collation: Title, p. 1; verso (copyright secured), p. 2 (in lower right hand corner: Matchett & Woods Printers); p. 3, quotation:

Entiendes, Fabio, lo que voi deciendo?

Toma, si, lo entendio: - Mientes, Fabio.

p. 4, blank; p. 5, half title: AL AARAAF; verso, p. 6:

What has night to do with sleep? - COMUS.

p. 7, Dedication:

Who drinks the deepest? - herc 's to him. - CLEAVELAND.

p. 8, blank; p. 9, "A star was discovered by Tycho Brahe which burst forth in a moment, with a splendor surpassing that of Jupiter - then gradually faded away and became invisible to the naked eye." p. 10, blank; p. 11, poem, Science; p. 12, blank; pp. 13-21, AL AARAAF, part I.; p. 22, blank; p. 23, half title, AL AARAAF; verso blank, p. 24; pp. 25-38, AL AARAAF, part II.; p. 39, half title, TAMERLANE; p. 40: ADVERTISEMENT

This poem was printed for publication in Boston, in the year / 1827, but suppressed through circumstances of a private nature.

p. 41, Dedication: TO / JOHN NEAL / THIS POEM / IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. / p. 42, blank; pp. 43-54, TAMERLANE; p. 55, half title, MISCELLANEOUS POEMS; p. 56:

My nothingness

My sins

And my contrition - SOUTHEY E. PERSIS.1

And some flowers - but no bays. · · MILTON.

p. 57, poem, Romance; p 58, blank; pp. 59-71, POEMS, numbered 1 to 9. Issued in boards, with tinted paper covering, muslin backs. Size of leaf untrimmed 8.75 by 5.25 inches. One copy in the library of a New York collector has the date 1820, which some think a printer's error, while others are of the opinion that Poe had that date put in on purpose. This was a presentation copy to his cousin Elizabeth (Herring). It also has his corrections in his own hand made for the 1845 edition of his poems. Some copies have the poem "Science" on the unpaged leaf. Some ten or more copies of the volume are known. One is in the New York Public Library, another in the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and the others mainly in private libraries — five in New York City, one in Chicago, one in Washington, and one in Pittsburg.

1831

POEMS / By Edgar A. Poe. / (Rule) Tout le Monde a Raison.— Rochefoucault. / (Rule) Second Edition / (Rule) New York: / Published by Elam Bliss. / (Rule) 1831.

Collation: p. 1, half title, Poems; verso blank, p. 2; p. 3, title; p. 4, imprint; p. 5, Dedication, To The U. S. / Corps Of Cadets / This vol

1 Error for SOUTHEY'S PERSIS.

ume is Respectfully Dedicated; verso blank, p. 6; p. 7, Contents; verso blank, p. 8; half title, "Letter," p. 9; verso blank, p. 10; p. 11, Quotation; verso blank, p. 12; pp. 13-29, text of letter to Mr. verso blank, p. 30; p. 31, half title, "Introduction "; verso blank, p. 32; pp. 33-124, POEMS: Helen, Israfel, The Doomed City, Fairy-land, Irene, A Pran, The Valley Nis, Science, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane. Size of leaf untrimmed 6.75 by 3.75 inches. Issued in cloth binding. Some copies have the word "The End" on the last leaf. Six copies are known, but there are likely others.

The original form of the 1831 letter,' with the Southern Literary Messenger variations, follows:

It has been said that a good critique on a poem may be written by one who is no poet himself. This, according to your idea and mine of poetry, I feel to be false - the less poetical the critic, the less just the critique, and the converse. On this account, and because there are but few B—'s in the world, I would be as much ashamed of the world's good opinion as proud of your own. Another than yourself might here observe, "Shakespeare is in possession of the world's good opinion, and yet Shakespeare is the greatest of poets. It appears then that the world judge correctly, why should you be ashamed of their favorable judgment?" The difficulty lies in the interpretation of the word "judgment" or "opinion." The opinion is the world's, truly, but it may be called theirs as a man would call a book his, having bought it; he did not write the book, but it is his; they did not originate the opinion, but it is theirs. A fool, for example, thinks Shakespeare a great poet-yet the fool has never read Shakespeare. But the fool's neighbor, who is a step higher on the Andes of the mind, whose head (that is to say, his more exalted thought) is too far above the fool to be seen or understood, but whose feet (by which I mean his every-day actions) are sufficiently near to be discerned, and by means of which that superiority is ascertained, which but for them would never have been discovered - this neighbor asserts that Shakespeare is a great poet the fool believes him, and it is henceforward his opinion. This neighbor's own opinion has, in like manner, been adopted from one

1 Printed, with the following note in the Southern Literary Messenger of July, 1836: "Letter To B― These detached passages form part of the preface to a small volume printed some years ago for private circulation. They have vigor and much originality but of course we shall not be called upon to endorse all the writer's opinions. — ED."