"THE BELLS. A SONG. "The bells ! - hear the bells! How horrible a monody there floats From their deep-toned throats! How I shudder at the notes From the melancholy throats Of the bells! "About six months after this we received the poen. enlarged and altered nearly to its present size and form ; and about three months since, the author sent another alteration and enlargement, in which condition the poem was left at the time of his death."- From Sartain's Union Magazine. "The original MS. of The Bells,' in its enlarged form, from which the draft sent to Sartain's' was made, is in our possession at this time. "In the twelfth line of the first stanza of the original draft, the word 'bells' was repeated five times, instead of four, as Poe printed it, and but twice in the next line. In changing and obviously improving the effect, he has drawn his pen through the fifth repetition, and added another underlined, to the two of the next line. The same change is made in the corresponding lines in the next stanza. In the sixth line of the third stanza, the word 'much is placed before too' with the usual mark indicating the transposition which he made in printing it, and, as originally written, the word 'anger,' in the fifth line from the last in this stanza, was written 'clamor,' while anger' was placed in the last line. . . . In the sixth line of the fourth stanza, the word meaning' was first used in lieu of the more impressive 'menace' to which it gave place. The eighth line of this stanza was first written From out their ghostly throats; and the eleventh line was changed twice, reading first, Who live up in the steeple,' then 'They that sleep' was substituted for who live,' and finally 'dwell' was printed instead of sleep. After the eighteenth line, a line was added that was elided entirely in the poem as printed. It read, "But are pestilential carcasses departed from their souls.' . . . In making the change, omitting this line, he simply substituted, They are ghouls,' in the next line, in pencil."— Gill's Life of Poe, p. 207. ELDORADO. Page 123. GRISWOLD, 1850. Text, Griswold; no earlier form of the poem is known. EDITOR'S NOTE. This lyric of disappointed endeavor is not an unfitting close of Poe's poetic career. In this the Valley of Shadow suggests Death. APPENDIX. POEMS ATTRIBUTED TO POE. THE following Note by Mr. J. H. Ingram (“The Complete Poetical Works and Essays in Poetry, of Edgar Allan Poe, together with His Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym," Frederick Warne & Co., London and New York) will give what light there is upon four poems attributed to Poe: "Of the many verses from time to time ascribed to the pen of Edgar Poe, and not included among his known writings, the lines entitled Alone' have the chief claim to our notice. Fac-simile copies of this piece had been in possession of the present editor some time previous to its publication in Scribner's Magazine for September, 1875; but as proofs of the authorship claimed for it were not forthcoming, he refrained from publishing it as requested. The desired proofs have not yet been adduced, and there is, at present, nothing but internal evidence to guide us. • Alone' is stated to have been written by Poe in the album of a Baltimore lady (Mrs. Balderstone ?), on March 17th, 1829, and the fac-simile given in Scribner's is alleged to be of his handwriting. If the caligraphy be Poe's, it is different in all essential respects from all the many specimens known to us, and strongly resembles that of the writer of the heading and dating of the manuscript, both of which the contributor of the poem acknowledges to have been recently added. The lines, howVOL. VII. 15 (225) ever, if not by Poe, are the most successful imitation of his early mannerisms yet made public, and, in the opinion of one well qualified to speak, are not unworthy on the whole of the parentage claimed for them.' "Whilst Edgar Poe was editor of the Broadway Journal, some lines To Isadore' appeared therein, and, like several of his known pieces, bore no signature. They were at once ascribed to Poe, and in order to satisfy questioners, an editorial paragraph subsequently appeared, saying they were by A. Ide, junior.' Two previous poems had appeared in the Broadway Journal over the signature of A. M. Ide,'' and whoever wrote them was also the author of the lines To Isadore.' In order, doubtless, to give a show of variety, Poe was then publishing some of his known works in his journal over noms de plume, and as no other writings whatever can be traced to any person bearing the name of A. M. Ide,' it is not impossible that the poems now republished in this collection may be by the author of The Raven.' Having been published without his usual elaborate revision, Poe may have wished to hide his hasty work under an assumed name. The three pieces are included in the present collection, so the reader can judge for himself what pretensions they possess to be by the author of The Raven. 1 Mr. Ingram is wrong in attributing the Ide poems to Poe. Ide was a real person and corresponded with Poe. See Vol. XVII. — J. A. H. ALONE. ["Scribner's Magazine," September, 1875. Text. "Scribner's Magazine."] NOTE:The poem is introduced by the following note in "Scribner's"; "The following verses, which are given in facsimile, were written by Edgar A. Poe, shortly before he left West Point in 1829." Of course this date is wrong; Poe was not at West Point until July 1, 1830. FROM childhood's hour I have not been My passions from a common spring — My sorrow - I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone When the rest of Heaven was blue (Signed) Baltimore, March 17, 1829. E. A. POɛ. |