Notes

       Table of Contents

      Note on The Raven

      "The Raven" was first published on the 29th January, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror—a paper its author was then assistant editor of. It was prefaced by the following words, understood to have been written by N. P. Willis:

      "We are permitted to copy (in advance of publication) from the second number of the American Review, the following remarkable poem by Edgar Poe. In our opinion, it is the most effective single example of 'fugitive poetry' ever published in this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift and 'pokerishness.' It is one of those 'dainties bred in a book' which we feed on. It will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it."

      In the February number of the American Review the poem was published as by "Quarles," and it was introduced by the following note, evidently suggested if not written by Poe himself.

      "The following lines from a correspondent—besides the deep, quaint strain of the sentiment, and the curious introduction of some ludicrous touches amidst the serious and impressive, as was doubtless intended by the author—appears to us one of the most felicitous specimens of unique rhyming which has for some time met our eye. The resources of English rhythm for varieties of melody, measure, and sound, producing corresponding diversities of effect, have been thoroughly studied, much more perceived, by very few poets in the language. While the classic tongues, especially the Greek, possess, by power of accent, several advantages for versification over our own, chiefly through greater abundance of spondaic feet, we have other and very great advantages of sound by the modern usage of rhyme. Alliteration is nearly the only effect of that kind which the ancients had in common with us. It will be seen that much of the melody of 'The Raven' arises from alliteration and the studious use of similar sounds in unusual places. In regard to its measure, it may be noted that if all the verses were like the second, they might properly be placed merely in short lines, producing a not uncommon form: but the presence in all the others of one line—mostly the second in the verse" (stanza?)—"which flows continuously, with only an aspirate pause in the middle, like that before the short line in the Sapphio Adonic, while the fifth has at the middle pause no similarity of sound with any part beside, gives the versification an entirely different effect. We could wish the capacities of our noble language in prosody were better understood."

      Note on The Bells

      The bibliographical history of "The Bells" is curious. The subject, and some lines of the original version, having been suggested by the poet's friend, Mrs. Shew, Poe, when he wrote out the first draft of the poem, headed it, "The Bells. By Mrs. M. A. Shew." This draft, now the editor's property, consists of only seventeen lines, and reads thus:

       I

      The bells!—ah the bells!

       The little silver bells!

       How fairy-like a melody there floats

       From their throats—

       From their merry little throats—

       From the silver, tinkling throats

       Of the bells, bells, bells—

       Of the bells!

       II

      The bells!—ah, the bells!

       The heavy iron bells!

       How horrible a monody there floats

       From their throats—

       From their deep-toned throats—

       From their melancholy throats

       How I shudder at the notes

       Of the bells, bells, bells—

       Of the bells!

      In the autumn of 1848 Poe added another line to this poem, and sent it to the editor of the Union Magazine. It was not published. So, in the following February, the poet forwarded to the same periodical a much enlarged and altered transcript. Three months having elapsed without publication, another revision of the poem, similar to the current version, was sent, and in the following October was published in the Union Magazine.

      Note on Ulalume

      This poem was first published in Colton's American Review for December 1847, as "To — — Ulalume: a Ballad." Being reprinted immediately in the Home Journal, it was copied into various publications with the name of the editor, N. P. Willis, appended, and was ascribed to him. When first published, it contained the following additional stanza which Poe subsequently, at the suggestion of Mrs. Whitman wisely suppressed:

      Said we then—the two, then—"Ah, can it

       Have been that the woodlandish ghouls—

       The pitiful, the merciful ghouls—

       To bar up our path and to ban it

       From the secret that lies in these wolds—

       Had drawn up the spectre of a planet

       From the limbo of lunary souls—

       This sinfully scintillant planet

       From the Hell of the planetary souls?"

      Note on To Helen

      "To Helen" (Mrs. S. Helen Whitman) was not published Until November 1848, although written several months earlier. It first appeared in the Union Magazine and with the omission, contrary to the knowledge or desire of Poe, of the line, "Oh, God! oh, Heaven—how my heart beats in coupling those two words".

      Note on Annabel Lee

      "Annabel Lee" was written early in 1849, and is evidently an expression of the poet's undying love for his deceased bride although at least one of his lady admirers deemed it a response to her admiration. Poe sent a copy of the ballad