LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap.._5_* Copyright No. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. IN THE POE CIRCLE FROM AN ETCHING BY S. HOLLYER In The Poe Circle With Some Account of the Poe- Chivers Controversy, and other Poe Memorabilia JOEL BENTON Author of " Emerson as a Poet M. F. Mansfield & A. Wessels NEW YORK Copyright 1899 Bv M. F. MANSFIELD & A. WESSELS NEW YORK 43063 TWO COPIES RECEIVED. \?^V1, ,J|» '«*&. SECOND COFA Contents. The Precursor of Poe, . The Poe-Chivers Controversy, Poe's Opinion of the Raven, Thomas Holley Chivers, Baudelaire and Poe : A Brief Parallel, Bibliography PAGS . 7 • 3i . 54 . 61 69 81 Dedication To My Father Whose Patient Fortitude under Extreme and Life- long Trials, and whose Generous Nature I have Never Known Surpassed. Prefatory Note The interest which the serial publication of the articles here collected has evoked, through a wide-spread constituency, has prompted me to gather them to- gether in this way. It only remains to be said that they ap- peared, two of them, in Collier's Weekly ; two in The Forum ; one in Munsey's ; and one in Truth. It is hoped the illustrative and subsidiary features presented, not less than the temper of the dis- cussion, may have something to offer to those who care for Poe. JOEL BENTON Poughkeepsie, N. Y. August i, 1899 Ui^ri-Vrii ' <2S*^s This is a reproduction of the only shingle remaining from the original roof which covered the cottage at Fordham while Poe lived there. J.B. ON A SHINGLE. Taken from the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage at Fordham Beneath this bit of darkened pine, Genius and grief once dwelt together ; Bard of "The Raven's" haunting line, Shingle and bard in bitterest weather. But then the cold world had not heard Of that immitigable sorrow? And human hearts it only stirred When dawned the too late, far to-morrow. If it should speak, it's parent tree's Sad chords — when -winds its boughs were swaying — Would fail to voice the tragedies All words are powerless for portraying. Joel Benton. The Precursor of Poe. There is no literary reputation in Amer- ica, and few literary names of the last half- century, that evoke the curious, haunting memory which belongs to Poe. A new and well-authenticated poem bearing his name, which Mr. R. H. Stoddard says he believes it will never be possible at this date to find, would make a tremendous literary event. The discovery of a new Shakespearian play might be more interesting to more people ; but in America, and in France, where Poe's influence has distinctly touched two groups of authors belonging to two generations, a genuine Poe discovery would, with large numbers, take precedence. One may state the fact without being able [7] In the Poe Circle to give it critical justification. In fact, the critic of Poe as a poet cannot reasonably ac- count for him and his fame. A great deal of the verse that he wrote, if it was pre- sented to-day for the first time, would at- tract little attention. If you subtract from his body of poetry — which is not a large quan- tity taken altogether — "The Raven," "An- nabel Lee," and possibly one or two more of the poems, in which list "The Bells," for its bizarreness, might be included, what, really, would there be left to found this singular and unchallenged fame upon ? But no such treatment would be detri- mental to Bryant, Longfellow, Emerson, or Lowell ; and Holmes and Whittier could bear it equally well without essential loss of distinction. What was it, then, that Poe contributed to literature which so tingles the nerves and stirs up pulsations of de- light? It is certainly nothing that he offers in the domain of thought. He settles no real problems, nor discusses them even, nor [8] The Precursor of Poe peers into them. In one or two passages in Wordsworth's "Ode on the Intimations of Immortality," and on almost any page of Tennyson's "In Memoriam," can be found more criticism of life, which is what Mat- thew Arnold calls the function of poetry, than there is in all the poems Poe ever wrote. No great poet that we know drifted so far away from Arnold's ideal as Poe did; while some of our minor poets fulfil it to a very high degree. Certainly somewhere and somehow he had and gave charm ; and Arnold said also : " Charm is the glory which makes Song of the poet divine." This charm, too, may have been height- ened, or made piquant, by his romantic and desolate career. Such a career, marking nearly a whole life, and ending it with a sharp climax so inverted from what we could wish it to have been, no doubt gives added interest to his work. It gives it, be- cause it seems so hard that a man of so [9] In the Poe Circle ethereal genius should not have been a crowned prince instead of being driven to a lifelong struggle which he was ill fitted to maintain. You cannot harness humming- birds as common carriers, nor spirits like Poe's to prosaic daily concerns. Yet the world has no allowance to make for this law of adaptation. It cares little at the time the poet is living what becomes of that most precious commodity which is called genius, nor did it ever care. But it will rave over and dote upon it a generation after the time help and honors have ceased to be of any earthly avail. Was it not long ago said — " Seven cities claimed the birth of Homer, dead, Through which the living Homer begged his bread"? Yet if Poe felt impediments acutely, a romantic career, with poverty and various ills combined, will not create a genius, as it sometimes will not suppress one. Poe, it must be conceded, had a hard, tragical fate, [IO] The Precursor of Poe and for his waywardness we need not stop to partition the blame. Differ here as we may, it is not denied that he brought to tts, independently of his condition, a bouquet of thrilling verse that seems to hold peren- nially its place, its beauty, and its wonder, and to glow ever afresh " in the corridors of Time." There was at any rate some subtle substance, or color, or melody in it, that the world does not willingly let die. From his best pages exhales an aroma that his imita- tors do not quite repeat, and cannot pro- duce. There was a mould of form and a music which were, as the world thinks, his own, but which have been echoed more or less, and have influenced other poets — nota- bly Baudelaire and Swinburne. Nor would the modern decadents have been just what they are if Poe had not lived, and written as he did. But, in writing thus far, and saying these few things, I am not aiming to enlarge the quantity of Poe criticism which we now ["J In the Poe Circle have, or to even emphasize the mental pic- ture of Poe which is already very definite in the public mind. My purpose, rather, is to speak of a poet little known now, who once made claim to be, or whose friends assert was, Poe's precursor. That he came very near to being a considerable poet, and that he embodies more of the Poe atmosphere and melody than exist anywhere out of Poe's verse, will not be hard to prove. This author, as was true of Poe himself, belonged to the South ; but of his life I have only a slight record, which shows that he was a doctor and lived during his later years, at least, in Georgia. Before Poe was known, this poet — T. H. Chivers, M.D. — was writ- ing various weird and musical lyrics which I presume went from time to time through the Southern press. Nearly sixty years ago he began collecting them in book form ; and there were seven or eight volumes of them in all — a much more voluminous poetical legacy than Poe's. I have only seen one of [-12] The Precursor of Poe these volumes, but the following list gives the names of all the books Chivers wrote, so far as I can discover,* in the order of their appearance : " Nacooche, or the Beautiful Star, with other Poems," i2mo, pp. 153, New York, 1837; "The Lost Pleiad, and other Poems," 8vo, pp. 32, New York, 1845; " Eonchs of Ruby: A Gift of Love," 8vo, pp. 108, New York, 1 851; "Memoralia, or Phials of Amber," "Full of the Tears of Love," "A Gift for the Beautiful," 12 mo, pp. 168, Philadelphia, 1853; "Virginalia, or Songs of My Summer Nights and Gift of Love for the Beautiful," i2mo, pp. 132, Philadel- phia, 1853;^' The Sons of Usna: A Tragic * In the " Diversion of the Echo Club, " there is refer- ence to a seventh volume by Chivers, titled "Facets of Diamonds." Allibone's supplement mentions also an eighth, titled " Atlanta, or the True Blessed Island of Poesy " ; a Paul epic in three lustra ; Macon, Ga., 1855, 8vo. [While this article is going to press I find a record of what must be this prolific poet's first book, and it is titled as follows, " Conrad and Eudora, or the Death of Alonzo. A Threnody," i6mo, pp. 144, Philadelphia, 1834.] [13] In the Poe Circle Apotheosis in Five Acts," pp. 92, Philadel- phia, 1858. It would be difficult, ordinarily, to write about a poerfT from a consideration chiefly of one of his many volumes, and I feel the limitation this attempt imposes. But it is admitted, I believe, by the few who know the most of Chivers, that he put his char- acteristic, and probably his best work in the third volume which he issued — " The Eonchs of Ruby." And it is this volume which I have before me. The motto on the title-page of it is as follows : " The precious music of the heart. " — Wordsworth. The publishers were Spalding & Shepard of New York. The publishers of the remain- ing volumes I do not know, and I regret that I cannot give their title-pages as com- pletely as I have that of the volume which is at hand. It will be noticed at once that Chivers did not abide altogether by the dictionary, [14] The Precursor of Poe as no such word as " Eonchs " exists. But more of this tendency of his to speak large, sonorously, and with independence, will ap- pear later on. The most Poe-like and the best of his pieces in this volume is undoubtedly his " Lily Adair." If he really wrote this poem before Poe was known to him, the coinci- dence of accent, rhythm, and style with Poe's work suggests a curious study. Al- though the date of the book containing it was too late to show an antecedence to Poe, the separate pieces in the book must have preceded that year by a distance not now to be determined. It must be remembered, too, that the two volumes which were first issued by Chivers were given to the public — the second six years, and the first fourteen years before "The Eonchs of Ruby" ap- peared ; so that, if we properly antedate the poems Chivers collected in 1837, we find him writing in the Poe manner over sixty years ago — perhaps over seventy years ago. [15] In the Poe Circle But here is the poem, and it will tell, in part at least, its own story : LILY ADAIR. I. The Apollo Belvidere was adorning* The Chamber where Eulalie lay, While Aurora, the Rose of the Morning, Smiled full in the face of the Day. All around stood the beautiful Graces Bathing Venus — some combing her hair- While she lay in her husband's embraces A-moulding my Lily Adair — Of my fawn-like Lily Adair — Of my dove-like Lily Adair — Of my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. II. Where the Oreads played in the Highlands, And the Water-Nymphs bathed in the streams, In the tall Jasper Reeds of the Islands — She wandered in life's early dreams. * It was a beautiful idea of the Greeks that the procreation of beautiful children might be pro- moted by keeping in their sleeping apartments an Apollo or Hyacinthus. In this way they not only patronized Art, but begat a likeness of their own love. [16] The Precursor of Poe For the Wood-Nymphs then brought from the Wildwood The turtle-doves Venus kept there, Which the Dryades tamed, in his childhood, For Cupid, to Lily Adair — To my dove-like Lily Adair — To my lamb-like Lily Adair — To my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. III. Where the Opaline Swan circled, singing, With her eider-down Cygnets at noon, In the tall Jasper Reeds that were springing From the marge of the crystal Lagoon — Rich Canticles, clarion-like, golden, Such as only true love can declare, Like an Archangel's voice in times olden — I went with my Lily Adair — With my lamb-like Lily Adair — With my saint-like Lily Adair — With my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. IV. Her eyes, lily-lidded, were azure, Cerulian, celestial, divine — Suffused with the soul-light of pleasure, Which drew all the soul out of mine. She had all the rich grace of the Graces, And all that they had not to spare ; For it took all their beautiful faces To make one for Lily Adair — In the Poe Circle For my Christ-like Lily Adair — For my Heaven-born Lily Adair — For my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. She was fairer by far than that Maiden, The star-bright Cassiope, Who was taken by Angels to Aiden, And crowned with eternity. For her beauty the Sea-Nymphs offended, Because so surpassingly fair; And so death then the precious life ended Of my beautiful Lily Adair — Of my Heaven-born Lily Adair — Of my star-crowned Lily Adair — Of my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. VI. From her Paradise-Isles in the ocean, To the beautiful City of On, By the mellifluent rivers of Goshen, My beautiful Lily is gone ! In her Chariot of Fire translated, Like Elijah, she passed through the air, To the City of God golden-gated — The Home of my Lily Adair — Of my star-crowned Lily Adair — Of my God-loved Lily Adair — Of my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. [i81 The Precursor of Poe VII. On the vista-path made by the Angels, In her Chariot of Fire, she rode, While the Cherubim sang their Evangels — To the Gates of the City of God. .For the Cherubim-band that went with her, I saw them pass out of the air — I saw them go up through the ether Into Heaven with my Lily Adair — With my Christ-like Lily Adair — With my God-loved Lily Adair — With my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair. Here, without question, is a typical breath of the Poe afflatus, which it needs no deli- cate ear to detect. The sacrifice of sense to sound is sometimes extreme, but the fault in a lesser degree was also Poe's. If you forget it or pardon it in "Lily Adair," you will feel the same flow of consonance and melody that was a. supreme and charac- teristic part of Poe's endowment. In an- other poem, which is entitled "Love," ap- pears the note or echo of "The Bells." I quote below a few stanzas from it : [19] In the Poe Circle What is it that makes the maiden So like Christ in Heaven above? Or, like Heavenly Eve in Aiden, Meeting Adam, blushing? — love — ' Love, love, love! Echo Love! What is it that makes the murmur Of the plaintive turtle-dove Fill our hearts with so much summer Till they melt to passion? — love — Love, love, love! Echo Love! Like the peace-song of the Angels Sent to one from Heaven above Who believes in Christ's Evangels Is the voice of one in love — Love, love, love! Echo Love! 4 If this poem merely followed "The Bells " we should call it a very weak wash- ing of Poe's chalice; but if it preceded that poem, it may have given to Poe the hint on which he wrought his far superior produc- tion. [20] The Precursor of Poe II. In " The Vigil of Aiden" drivers is dis- tinctly Poesque. He opens it as follows : In the Rosy Bowers of Aiden With her ruby lips love-laden, Dwelt the mild, the modest maiden, Whom Politian called Lenore. As the churches, with their whiteness, Clothe the earth with her uprightness, Clothed she now his soul with brightness,. Breathing out her heart's love-lore; For her lily limbs so tender, Like the moon in her own splendor Seemed all earthly things to render Bright as Eden was of yore. Then he cried out broken-hearted, In this desert world deserted, Though she had not yet departed — " Are we not to meet, dear maiden t In the Rosy Bowers of Aiden, As we did in days of yore?" And that modest, mild, sweet maiden, In the Rosy Bowers of Aiden, With her lily lips love-laden, Answered, "Yes! f orevermore ! " And the old time Towers of Aiden Echoed, "Yes! f orevermore!" [21] In the Poe Circle " The Vigil of Aiden " covers twenty-six pages of the "Eonchs of Ruby," so that it is difficult to sample it accurately. But I give a few additional extracts from it be- low: Oh ! the plaintive sweet beseeching Of those lips that death was bleaching Then her mother cried " My Daughter ! " As from earth the angels caught her — She had passed the Stygian water On the Asphodelian shore ! • •*••• Through the amethystine morning From the Jasper Reeds of Aiden Lofty piles of echoing thunder, Filling all the sky Heaven under — Drowning all the stars with wonder — Burthened with the name Lenore ! And the lips of that damned Demon, Like the Syren to the seamen, With the voice of his dear Leman, Answered, " Never — nevermore !' [22] The Precursor of Poe And the old time Towers of Aiden Echoed, " Never— nevermore ! " 44 Through the luminiferous Gihon, To the Golden City high on High Eternity's Mount Zion, God built in the Days of Yore^- To the Golden Land of Goshen, Far beyond Time's upper ocean, Where, beholding our devotion Float the argent orbs all o'er — To Avillon's happy Valley, Where the breezes ever dally With the roses in each Alley — There to rest fore verm ore." While the Seraphim all waited At the portals congregated Of the City Golden-gated, Crying, " Rise with thy Lenore!" Did drivers strike first these cadences, now so familiar? Or were they Poe's in- vention who made them immortal in " The Raven"? In Chivers's poem of "Avalon" occur such passages as follow : For thou didst tread with fire-ensandalled feet, Star-crowned, forgiven, [23] In the Poe Circle The burning diapason of the stars so sweet, To God in Heaven ! The Violet of her soul-suffused eyes Was like that flower Which blows its purple trumpet at the skies For Dawn's first hour Four little Angels killed by one cold Death To make God glad ! Thou wert like Taleisin, " full of eyes, " Babbling of Love ! My beautiful, Divine Eumenides ! My gentle Dove ! • ••••• Kindling the high-uplifted stars at even With thy sweet song, The Angels, on the Sapphire Sills of Heaven, In rapturous throng Melted to milder meekness with the Seven Bright Lamps of God to glory given Leant down to hear thy voice roll up the leven, . Where thou art lying Beside the beautiful undying In the valley of the passing of the Moon, Oh ! Avalon ! my son ! my son ! On the poem titled " Lord Uther's Lament [24] The Precursor of Poe for Ella " the imprint and flavor, which we know as Poe's, are unquestionable. Mark, for instance, these stanzas : On the mild month of October Through the fields of Cooly Rauber By the great Archangel Huber, Such sweet songs of love did flow, From her golden lips preluded That my soul with, joy was flooded, As by God the earth was wooded In the days of long ago. All her soul's divinest treasure Poured she out then without measure, Till an ocean of deep pleasure Drowned my soul from all its woe ; Like Cecilia Inatella, In the Bowers of Boscabella, Sang the saintly Angel Ella In the days of long ago. Here, also, is a visible Poe touch from the poem of " The Dying Swan " : " Back to Hell, thou ghostly Horror ! " Thus I cried, dear Isadore ! Phantom of remorseless Sorrow ! Death might from thee pallor borrow, Borrow leanness evermore ! L25] In the Poe Circle In one of Bayard Taylor's witty accounts in "The Diversions of the Echo Club," Chivers is discussed. " The Ancient " says : " Why, we even had a hope that something wonderful would come out of Chivers! " Omnes — Chivers ? The Ancient — Have you never heard of Chivers? He is a phenomenon. . . . One of the finest images in modern poetry is in his " Apollo ": Like cataracts of adamant uplifted into mountains, Making oceans metropolitan for the splendor of the dawn. Further on "The Ancient" says: "I re- member also a stanza of his ' Rosalie Lee'": Many mellow Cydonian suckets, Sweet apples, anthosmal, divine, From the ruby-rimmed beryline buckets, Star-gemmed, lily-shaped, hyaline; Like the sweet, golden goblet found growing On the wild emerald cucumber tree, Rich, brilliant, like chrysoprase glowing Was my beautiful Rosalie Lee. [26] The Precursor of Poe It is not only in the swing of his verse, but in the epithets of this bizarre Georgia poet, and sometimes in the exact phrases, that we are confronted with the Poe man- ner. Such words as "Aiden," "abysmal," "Eulalie," "Asphodel," "Evangel," "Ava- lon," " Auber," and dozens of others require no comment or footnote. Two poets could not have fallen upon them by original choice, to say nothing of the atmosphere which was drawn around them. Of course there is no question that Poe used this ma- chinery and hypnotism better than Chivers did or could. One leaves an immortal halo around his name, and the other a nebulous mist which failed to condense into a star. Poe sometimes divorced sense from sonor- ity — so that he was called by Emerson " the jingle poet." Chivers carried this habit often to a grotesqueness fairly lunatic. Poe's nomenclature at least was sound. But Chivers's was so far-fetched and abnor- mal that meaning never entered many of [27] In the Poe Circle his words, and etymology did not preside over their capricious and erratic birth. Perhaps their mystery makes them more expressive and appalling. Who, for in- stance, can tell what is an "Eonch"? "Anthosmal" is not entirely normal; and some others which he uses are, apparently, merely the fruitage of his fertile fancy. Chivers made extreme pomp and majesty of expression his high aim. He could also be fluent when he revealed no message. You are reminded by him of Edwin Lear's "The Jumblies," and of the epithet quality of Lewis Carroll's " Jabberwock." But if he set the mould and pace for Poe, on which Poe erected his own fame, he will surely have some claim to remembrance. It is true the poetry, which is weird and mysti- fying, and which, to use Taylor's phrases, "has a hectic flush, a strange, fascinating, narcotic quality," is not now in the ascend- ant. When its fashion comes around again, as it may in nature's cyclic progress, will [28] The Precursor of Poe Poe and Chi vers stand together as our poetic Castor and Gemini, or "Heavenly Twins"? One event which suggests Chivers's prior- ity to Poe is the fact that Bryant in his " Selections from American Poetry, " made in 1840, gave Poe no place, while Chivers's first book of verse appeared several years before that date; and Poe was hardly known as a poet before 1844. Chivers's full name and title was Thomas Holley Chivers, M.D. Somehow his fame went to England early ; for there has been for years, it is said, a complete set of his works on the shelves of the British Mu- seum. And a complete set of them, it is thought, can be found nowhere else. So hard has it been to pick up the facts in this curious Georgia poet's life that we cannot find them in Allibone's or Appleton's dic- tionaries, though the editor of the latter one made a diligent effort to produce them. But it seems Swinburne's knowledge of [29] In the Poe Circle drivers' s work began before he himself was so very widely known. When Bayard Taylor was in England, nearly thirty years ago, the name of Chivers happened, casually, to be mentioned in Swinburne's presence. "Oh, Chivers, Chivers," said Swinburne, in his peculiar voice, "if you know Chivers, give me your hand." Mr. Stedman says that an allusion to Chivers in Swinburne's hearing causes the author of "Atalanta in Calydon " to jump up and down in his chair, when he will repeat with great hilar- ity and gusto whole passages from Chivers 's books. It has been suggested to me by one critic and author that Swinburne not only re- peated them, but that he has put in his own poetry many marks of their influence. This is something near to a laurel or bay-leaf for Chivers, if he was really so forceful. But the imperfect crown, even if it remain so, must be enlarged if his friends can prove, in addition, that he was the precursor of Poe. [30] The Poe- Chivers Controversy. Very few people to-day, even in literary circles, know anything about Thomas Hol- ley Chivers, M.D. And even these know very little. He was a poet of at least one book before Bryant made that brief anthol- ogy of sixty or more American poets in 1840 — mostly names that have vanished long since into the everlasting inane — but he was not there represented. His first volume of verse appeared in 1837; though fugitive lyrics from his pen were doubtless afloat on the periodical seas long before that year. Poems over his signature were contributed as late as 1853 to Graham's Magazine and to the Waverley Magazine of Boston. It is, however, simply repeating an indu- bitable fact, to say that a large part of the [31] In the Poe Circle poetry of Chivers is mainly trash — of no ac- count whatever, and not above the reams of stanzas which from time immemorial have decorated as "original" the country news- paper's poet's corner. But now and then he struck a note quite above this dead and wide-pervading commonplace; and, when- ever he did, the verses brought forth were apt to suggest the mechanism and flavor of Poe. He not only said at various times — -especially in a series of letters which he wrote to Mr. Rufus W. Griswold, Poe's biographer, and which are now in the pos- session of his son * — that Poe had borrowed largely from him, but he put the transac- tion in much bolder terms. The charge of flagrant plagiarism of himself by Poe, in respect even of "The Raven" and "Anna- bel Lee," was not withheld, but was vio- lently advanced by Chivers. Nor was he *Mr. W. M. Griswold, of Cambridge, Mass., to whom I am greatly indebted for many of these facts. [32] The Poe-Chivers Controversy alone in making this charge. Some of his friends took it up and repeated it with a vehemence and an ability worthy of a most sacred cause. There is circumstance enough about this, to say nothing of its singularity, to elevate Chivers into some- thing of a topic — one worth considering at least for a leisure moment. What is known about this author is, that he published seven or eight volumes of poems between, and inclusive of, 1837 and 1858 — a period of twenty-one years. Many of them antedate Poe's period of literary activity, and not a few have the Poe afflatus and melody so strongly inherent in them that even the non-critical reader could not mistake their related quality. In Chivers* s "Lily Adair," which crowns his high- water mark of poetic achievement, the Poe man- ner stands out conspicuously. This refrain from it, for instance, varied in some details at the end of each stanza, illustrates what I mean: [33] In the Poe Circle " In her chariot of fire translated, Like Elijah, she passed through the air, To the city of God golden-gated — The home of my Lily Adair — Of my star-crowned Lily Adair — Of my God-loved Lily Adair — Of my beautiful, dutiful Lily Adair." Olivers, in this poem, and in others which resemble Poe's work, made Biblical allusion a dominant trait to an extent that Poe did not, and really attained, though not always with perfect sanity, to much of Poe's witchery and charm. It is not my intention in this article to repeat the history and evidence which I presented and published elsewhere a few years ago concerning drivers' s claims against Poe. It will be sufficient for the purpose now in hand if I report, as briefly as may be, what Chivers and his friends, and those who antagonized the Chivers as- sumption, had to say about it nearly fifty years ago. In a quite able and stalwart way Chivers [34] The Poe-Chivers Controversy himself opened the contest, under the nom de plume of "Fiat Justitia," in the Waverley Magazine of July 30, 1853. In a long arti- cle, entitled "Origin of Poe's 4 Raven,' " he claims that the laudators of Poe — particu- larly N. P. Willis, who said of " The Ra- ven " that it " electrified the world of imagi- native readers, and has become the type of a school of poetry of its own " — "betray not only a deplorable ignorance of the current literature of the day, but the most abject poverty of mind in the knowledge of the true nature of poetry." He then quotes from his own book, "The Lost Pleiad," the following lines from the poem " To Allegra in Heaven," which was published in 1842, a few years before "The Raven " appeared. He asserts that these lines " show the intel- ligent reader the true and only source from which Poe obtained his style " in that poem: " Holy angels now are bending to receive thy soul ascending [35] r In the Poe Circle Up to Heaven to joys unending, and to bliss which is divine ; While thy pale cold form is fading under Death's dark wings now shading Thee with gloom which is pervading this poor broken heart of mine ! And as God doth lift the spirit up to Heaven there to inherit Those rewards which it doth merit, such as none have reaped before ; Thy dear father will to-morrow lay thy body with deep sorrow, In the grave which is so narrow, there to rest forevermore." In this article drivers also says that Poe is not entitled to priority in the use of the refrain "Nevermore." It was Chivers, he says (still writing tinder his now, de plume) , who originated this in a poem entitled " La- ment on the Death of My Mother," pub- lished in 1837 in the Middletown, Conn., Sentinel and Witness. The following extract from it is the proof he offers : " Not in the mighty realms of human thought, Nor in the kingdom of the earth around ; Nor where the pleasures of the world are sought, Nor where the sorrows of the earth are found — [36] The Poe-Chivers Controversy Nor on the borders of the great deep sea, Wilt thou return again from heaven to me — No, nevermore f" The reader, I imagine, will be likely to think that Poe gave this refrain a more potent and appealing quality. It is urged that Poe knew of Chivers's "The Lost Pleiad, and Other Poems," as he "spoke of it in the highest terms in the Broadway Journal, in 1 845 . " The writer ad- mits that " Poe was a great artist, a con- summate genius; no man that ever lived having possessed a higher sense of the poetic art than he did." But he urges that this fact must not obliterate the other; viz., that he took the liberty, arrogated by gen- ius, to borrow. After saying that Chivers (he speaks of himself all along as another person) was the first poet to make the trochaic rhythm express an elegiac theme, and the first to use the euphonic alliteration adopted by Poe, he cites the following extract from a [37] In the Poe Circle poem of his published before Poe's master- piece in verse appeared : " As an egg, when broken, never can be mended, but must ever Be the same crushed egg forever, so shall this dark heart of mine, Which, though broken, is still breaking, and shall nevermore cease aching, For the sleep which has no waking — for the sleep which now is thine ! " To step up to " The Raven " from so gro- tesquely low a level, one might easily con- sider — even were the charge of plagiarism proved — a complete absolution of blame. And, if this is admitted to be the foun- tain whence Poe got his form, an irreverent critic might say he reproduced it with un- surpassable effect and dissociated from it the atmosphere of Humpty-Dumpty. In the W aver ley Magazine oi August 13th of the same year, " Fiat Justitia " (Chivers) is taken in hand by "H. S. C." and "J. J. P.," on behalf of Poe. The difference in altitude and genius of the two writers is [38] The Poe-Chivers Controversy emphasized by them. Poe's personal char- acter is palliated ; but the question of prior- ity in the use of the Poe alliterative rhythm is not argued. The only reply touching this is by the first of the two writers, who shows that "Nevermore," as a refrain, is nobody's trademark, since it has been used even earlier than Chi vers' s employment of it. As an instance buttressing this state- ment, he offers the following stanzas from a very old scrap-book in which the poem of which they are part is credited to the Che- shire, England, Herald: " Now the holy pansies bloom Round about thy lonely tomb ; All thy little woes are o'er; We shall meet thee here no more — Nevermore ! But the robin loves to sing Near thee in the early spring; Thee his song will cheer no more By our trellised cottage door — Nevermore ! " The same writer asks if his antagonist [39] In the Poe Circle cannot, by his form of logic, prove that Poe stole his poem of "The Bells" from the nursery rhyme of "Ding Dong Bell." A week later than this, " Fiat Justitia " reap- pears in the Waverley Magazine, together with an ally signing himself " Felix For- resti" (possibly Chivers again*), who, see- ing him attacked by two knights of the pen, "takes up the cudgels" for Chivers. In fact, to be more truthful, all these writ- ers — speaking metaphorically — take up pitchforks and machetes. Their Billings- gate style savors of the Arizona Howler, and seems impossible to Boston. In this week's onslaught, however, no point of note occurs, except that the latter writer exhumes from a poem by Chivers, upon Poe, which was published in the Georgia Citizen about 1850, the following lines : * That an author could so write of himself, under masked signatures, is surprising. But the articles were substantially made up from his letters to Mr. R. W. Griswold, Poe's biographer. [40] The Poe-Chivers Controversy "" Like the great prophet in the desert lone, He stood here waiting for the golden morning ; From Death's dark vale I hear his distant moan Coming to scourge the world he was adorning — Scorning, in glory now, their impotence of scorn- ing." And now in apotheosis divine, He stands enthroned upon the immortal moun- tains Of God's eternity, forevermore to shine — Star-crowned, all purified with oil-anointings — Drinking with Ulalume from out the eternal fountains. And the writer adds : " Until both . . . cham- pions [of Poe] can write just such lines as these, they had better ' shut up shop.' " But neither side " shut up shop " just then. In the issue of September ioth, "Fiat Justitia" and "J. J. P." reappear. The former occupies nearly three columns with extracts from drivers' s poems to show the Poe manner, and to prove that it was in these poems Poe found it. The following sample is from " The Lost Pleiad " : " And though my grief is more than vain, Yet shall I never cease to grieve ; [41] In the Poe Circle Because no more, while I shall live, Will I behold thy face again ! No more while I have life or breath, No more till I shall turn to dust ! But I shall see thee after death, And in the heavens above I trust." The following extract is from drivers' s " Memoralia " : " I shall nevermore see pleasure, Pleasure nevermore but pain — Pleasure, losing that dear treasure Whom I loved here without measure, Whose sweet eyes were Heaven's own azure, Speaking, mild, like sunny rain ; I shall nevermore see pleasure For his coming back again ! " Of "The Lost Pleiad" volume, "Fiat Justitia" says that a Cincinnati reviewer declared, some years ago, that "there is nothing in the wide scope of literature, where passion, pathos, and pure art are combined, more touchingly tender than this whole unsurpassed and (in our opinion) un- surpassable poem." Another sample of Chivers's pre-Poe [42] The Poe-Chivers Controversy likeness the writer finds in a poem titled "Ellen -££yre," which was printed in a Philadelphia paper in 1836. He gives this stanza from it : " Like the Lamb's wife, seen in vision, Coming down from heaven above, Making earth like Fields Elysian, Golden city of God's love — Pure as jasper — clear as crystal — Decked with twelve gates richly rare — Statued with twelve angels vestal — Was the form of Ellen JEyre — Gentle girl so debonair — Whitest, brightest of all cities, saintly angel, Ellen iEyre." Very many other Poe-resembling ex- tracts are given; but these must suffice from the verse. To show that Poe bor- rowed from Chi vers in a prose criticism, our writer copies the following passage from an article by Chivers in the Atlanta Luminary : " There is poetry in the music of the birds — in the diamond radiance of the evening star — in the sun-illumined whiteness of the fleecy clouds — in [43] In the Poe Circle the open frankness of the radiant fields — in the soft, retiring mystery of the vales — in the cloud- sustaining grandeur of the many-folded hills— in the revolutions of the spheres — in the roll of rivers, and the run of rills." Now look on this, from Poe's "The Poetic Principle " : " He recognizes the ambrosia, which nourishes his soul, in the bright orbs that shine in heaven ... in the waving of the grain-fields — in the blue distance of mountains — in the grouping of clouds ... in the twinkling of the half -hidden brooks — in the gleaming of silver rivers — in the repose of sequestered lakes — in the star-mirroring depths of lonely wells ... in the song of birds — in the sigh- ing of the night- wind ... in the fresh breath of the woods, etc." Triumphantly the writer says, " Now . . . you will no longer wonder where Poe ob- tained his very delightful knowledge of the art of poetry." Not only the Chivers prose extract, but also the verse passages quoted by him were written, he affirms, " long an- terior " to the parallel passages in Poe. In the Waver ley of September 24th fol- [44] The Poe-Chivers Controversy lowing, "J. J. P." quotes Poe as saying of "The Raven," "I pretend to no originality in either the rhythm or metre." He also quotes Poe as saying of the passage by Chivers containing the egg simile : " That the lines very narrowly missed sublimity we will grant ; that they came within a step of it we admit; but, unhappily, the step is that one step which, time out of mind, has intervened between the sublime and the ridiculous." The whole controversy was continued with warmth in the Waverley Magazine of October i, 1853, by "Fiat Justitia," who began it. But I am told, too, that it was reopened in a later volume. As the Maga- zine office files were long ago destroyed by fire, I cannot say how the renewed contro- versy fared ; though it probably closed with nothing fresher than new epithets coined by the combatants. Nor is anything that is particularly new added by this article. It was mainly a threshing of the old straw, [45] In the Poe Circle which, all the way through, was supple- mented by a rhythm analysis that would take too much space to follow. From the Chivers poem " To Allegra in Heaven " he adduces this heretofore unquoted line, " Like some snow-white cloud just under Heaven some breeze has torn asunder " — which he thinks suggested Poe's two lines: "And the silken, sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain " — " Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear dis- course so plainly." Chivers, it seems, wrote for a variety of periodicals, among which were Graham's Magazine and Peterson's; and in the year this controversy was raging he contributed poems to the Waver ley Magazine itself. In " Fiat Justitia's " contention, it is said that Poe was obliged to reply in the Broadway Journal, in defence of the plagiaristic charge, to some writer using somewhere the nom de plume of "Outis." There was, [46] The Poe-Chivers Controversy in connection with the Chivers assumption and advocacy, a surprisingly earnest and hot assault. Only one more of these mili- tant articles (possibly by Chivers again) shall I notice here. He, signing himself "Philo Veritas" in the Waver ley Magazine of October 8th, 1853, communicates a " Railroad Song " taken from Graham y s> which was written by Chivers, and which he terms " a truly original poem." He does so in part for the purpose of " exposing one of the most pitiful plagiarisms " known — the "wishy-washy thing" entitled "Rail- road Lyric," that had appeared in Putnam *s Monthly of the previous May. Here are some lines from the one hundred and thir- teen composing Chivers' s poem: " All aboard ! Yes ! Tingle, tingle, Goes the bell as we all mingle — No one sitting solely single — As the steam begins to fizzle — With a kind of sighing sizzle — Ending in a piercing whistle — [47] In the Poe Circle And the cars begin to rattle, And the springs go tittle-tattle — Driving off the grazing cattle, As if Death were Hell pursuing To his uttermost undoing, Down the iron road to ruin — With a clitter, clatter, clatter, Like the Devil beating batter Up in Hell in iron platter, As if something was the matter; Then it changes to a clanking, And a clinking and a clanking, And a clanking and a clinking — As if Hell for our damnation, Had come down with desolation While the engine overteeming With excruciating screaming, Spits his vengeance out in steaming. • ••••■ Still repeating clitter, clatter Clitter, clatter, clitter, clatter As if something was the matter — While the woodlands all are ringing, And the birds forget their singing, And away to Heaven go winging. Then returns again to clatter Clitter, clatter, clitter, clatter [48] The Poe-Chivers Controversy Like the Devil beating batter Up in Hell in iron platter — Which subsides into a clankey, And a clinkey and a clankey And a clankey and a clinkey And a clinkey, clankey, clankey — Then to witchey, witchey, witchey, Chewey-witchey, chewey-witchey — Chewey-witchey, witchey, witchey, Then returns again to fizzle, With a kind of sighing sizzle — Ending in a piercing whistle — And the song that I now offer For Apollo's golden coffer — With the friendship that I proffer — Is for riding on a Rail." There was one poem of Chivers's, entitled "The Little Boy Blue," copied in the Wa- verley Magazine, which is singularly satu- rated with the nomenclature and manner that Poe affected. Here are a few illustra- tive stanzas out of the thirty-seven to which it extended : " The little boy blue Was the boy that was born In the forests of Dew On the Mountains of Morn. '[49] In the Poe Circle There the pomegranate bells — They were made to denote How much music now dwells In the nightingale's throat. On the green banks of On, By the city of No, There he taught the wild swan Her white bugle to blow. Where the cherubims rode On four lions of gold, There this cherub abode Making new what was old. When the angels came down To the shepherds at night, Near to Bethlehem Town Clad in garments of light, There the little Boy Blue Blew aloud on his horn, Songs as soft as the dew From the Mountains of Morn, But another bright place I would stop to declare, For the Angel of the Face Of Jehovah was there. [50] The Poe-Chivers Controversy Now this happy soul dwells Where the waters are sweet, Near the Sevenfold Wells Made by Jesus's feet." Not only are the Poe phrases here, but here, too, is the tossing, tumultuous imagi- nation of William Blake. I know of no writer who, so much as Chivers did, fell into Blake's phantasmagorial extravagance. The upshot of this cursory consideration of the voluminous controversy — beginning before Poe died, and virulently continued for some years after his death — shows that Poe knew Chi vers' s work and paid attention to him in more than one reference. The literary representatives of the minor poet appear, also, to bring forward some strik- ing examples of verse which he wrote, which was outwardly like Poe's, and which considerably antedated "The Bells," "The Raven," and "Annabel Lee," on which Poe's poetic fame rests. What conclusion must be drawn from [51] In the Poe Circle these facts? Each reader will be certain to make his own. No critic will doubt that to Poe belonged the wonderful magic and mastery of this species of song. If to him who says a thing best the thing belongs, no one will hesitate to decide that Poe is en- titled to the bays which crown him. It is a fact that, with all the contemporary airing of the subject, it is Poe's celebrity and not Chivers's that remains. The finer instinct and touch are what the world takes account of. Chi vers, except at rare intervals, did not approach near enough to the true alti- tude. He put no boundary between what was grotesque and what was inspired. He was too short-breathed to stay poised on the heights, and was but accidentally poetic. But we may accord him a single leaf of laurel, if no more, for what he came so near achieving in the musical lyric of " Lily Adair." Truly enough Shakespeare says: " The lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact ..." [52] The Poe-Chivers Controversy Their mental and spiritual territories inter- blend. The same frenzy is the endowment of each — as charcoal is in essence the dia- mond. As you differentiate and develop it you make your titular distinction and place. But it is not a small thing to have been mingled in some slight association with genius, and to have some credit you with it. In an Oriental poem the clay pipe speaks of its contentment, since it cannot be a rose, of having, by a fortunate associa- tion, attained to some of the rose's fra- grance. Poe's Opinion of " The Raven/' There seems to be no end of interest in Poe legends and Poeana. Poe is the one American poet — Whitman, perhaps, being a second — whose work has produced a cult ; and, at the same time, exercises a fascina- tion which is contagious and indescribable. Some might possibly call it hypnotic. He uses what Emerson calls " polarized words " ; and, while they haunt the mind, and even the very soul of the reader, they virtually create an atmosphere as distinct as that — though not like that — in one of Corot's landscapes. Poe contributed little to human thought. He had no ethical message whatever to de- liver. He could not have written Words- worth's "Ode on the Intimations of Human Immortality" — which is as pious, though not burdensomely so, as it is poetic. What [54] Poe's Opinion of "The Raven" his poetry is, is not what Matthew Arnold defined poetry to be — "a criticism of life." It is more like a series of musical diversions — fluent, sensuous, weird, sorrowful, and sepulchral, even subterranean almost in passages. But what differentiates it most specifically is, that it is sensuous. It moves no one to do anything; it, on the contrary, makes you feel something. In reading it you mourn for a vanished Aiden or a lost Lenore. It is a curious fame that rests so much upon so little — at least, upon so small a body of work. For, if you take " The Ra- ven," "Annabel Lee," and "The Bells" from Poe's poems — if you do not consider these at all — what would his poetic fame have been? Could it have been very great ? But with these poems he did undoubtedly put an imprint on the literature of his day and time that is matchless. Its influence is, at any rate, a more potent force in Eng- [55^ In the Poe Circle land and France than any other poet of our nation has yet attained to. Perhaps the weird and eerie has naturally upon the hu- man mind a more durable and clinging hold than the things that are sober and earthly. However this may be, " The Raven " alone, as a poem, seems to go on in people's minds with a constant crescendo of admiration from one year and generation to another. We get a good deal from time to time about the way it was composed. Persons who knew Poe, and those who have heard orally from them what he said, have given us many edifying stories concerning Poe's life at the time this poem was written, and the circumstances under which it was com- posed. There are but two American poems that I can think of whose bringing forth has been talked of anywhere near so much as this poem's birth has been, if any other than these three have been talked of in this respect at all. The two I allude to are, of [56] Poe's Opinion of " The Raven " course, Bryant's " Thanatopsis " and Long- fellow's "Excelsior." Does anybody remember, though — but this is an "aside" — that Emerson's "Hum- ble Bee " when it first appeared opened thus? " Fine Humble Bee, Fine Humble Bee, Where thou art is clime for me," instead of — in the vastly improved version — " Burly, dozing Humble Bee, Where thou art is clime for me." How those two new adjectives, encyclo- pedic almost in their bottled essence of de- scription, and displacing "fine," strength- ened the piece! But you will find, in the very first edition of Dana's " Household Book of Poetry," that the poem is printed in the first fashion — as it stood I suppose in "The Dial," before it was revised for Emerson's first volume of verses. But I must return to Poe and " The Ra- ven." The brief story I have to tell about [57] In the Poe Circle them I got orally from an author who once had some vogue, but who is now nearly completely forgotten. His name was at one time in many of our best periodicals; and the old Democratic Review once had a considerable critique upon his poetic posi- tion and promise. He was likened by the writer of the review article to Shelley and Keats ; and there were passages of his verse given which brought out, as I remember, a considerable of the suggested resemblance. Probably, though, his poem of " The Sword of Bunker Hill " — which was set to music — best typifies his prevailing poetic style, which was, in the main, noted for being eloquent and patriotic. William Ross Wallace (for it is he to whom I refer) was not unlike Poe in both temperament and habits. He was not a lit- tle like him in physique — in brightness of the eye, and in a superb courtliness of man- ner. He had the same, or a similar, irreso- lute will; but he was a delightful compan- [58] Poe's Opinion of "The Raven" ion to meet if you met him at the right time. He was, I believe, a Southerner by birth, as Poe was by acclimation. Wallace told me (in the early war-time when I first met him) that he knew Poe tolerably well. They were, he said, on pleasant and familiar terms ; and, it would seem (as Keats and Reynolds did), they read over to each other their not yet pub- lished poetical work. It was in obedience to this habit that Poe, on meeting Wallace one day, told him in some such words as these (I will be sponsor now only for their substance, and not for their form, or for the form of the colloquy between the known and the now-unknown poet) : " Wallace," said Poe, " I have just written the greatest poem that ever was written." "Have you? " said Wallace. "That is a fine achievement." " Would you like to hear it? " said Poe. "Most certainly," said Wallace. Thereupon Poe began to read the so to-be [59] In the Poe Circle famous verses in his best way — which I be- lieve was always an impressive and capti- vating way. When he had finished he turned to Wallace for his approval of them — when Wallace said : "Poe — they are fine; uncommonly fine.'* "Fine?" said Poe, contemptuously. "Is that all you can say for this poem? I tell you it's the greatest poem that was ever written." And then they separated — not, however, before Wallace had tried to placate, with somewhat more pronounced praise, the pet- tish poet. And to-day there are critics who say — not knowing Poe's own opinion of "The Ra- ven " — that it is " the greatest poem ever written." Whether it is or not, it bids fair to be the one that will be the most and the longest talked about. [60] THOMAS HOLLEY CHIVERS Thomas Holley Chivers. Until a recent date it has been difficult to give any definite or detailed account of Olivers, the eccentric Southern poet. The few relatives and friends of the author — and he was quite a voluminous author, for a poet — have not been aware that there was much popular interest in him; or else, for reasons of their own, they have not wished to gratify this curiosity as to his life. His name is not to be found in any biographical cyclopedia, though it is mentioned in Alli- bone's "Dictionary of Authors," a book that limits its function mainly to titles and names. When Appleton's "Cyclopedia of Ameri- can Biography " was being compiled, a few years ago, the editors were unable to find enough facts about Chivers to warrant the [61] In the Poe Circle insertion of even a short paragraph. All that a limited number of literary men knew about him was that such a man had been born early in the century ; that he was of a Southern family, but had spent some time in New England; that he was a physician in full standing ; and finally — a fact of more interest and importance — that he wrote lyrics which, when he employed his best style, were strangely like Poe's. Added to this piquant revelation was the strong as- sertion of himself, and of competent and distinguished persons, that his style was not borrowed from Poe, but that it ap- peared prior to Poe's characteristic work, and therefore set the pace by which Poe became famous ; giving the suggestion from which grew the latter's mystic fascination. To be brought into relations like these may not constitute fame, but it is a sort of second cousin to it, and must always beget an alluring interest in the author who came so near to a high goal. [62] Thomas Holley Chivers The facts which the reviewer now finds at his disposal are due in great measure to Mr. John Quincy Adams, of Washington, Ga., a relative of Chivers, and himself a writer of skill and vigor. The father of the poet was Col. Robert Chivers, who had three sons and four daughters. Thomas Holley, the eldest, was born in 1807, two years before Poe, at Digby Manor, a few miles south of Washington, Ga. His pro- genitors were English on both sides, and settled originally in Virginia. On the mother's side the name was Digby, her an- cestors having been prominent in England during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Mr. Adams states that Colonel Chivers was a rich planter and mill-owner. Recog- nizing the genius of his son, he became over-indulgent to him, so that the young man was imbued with a full sense of his own importance. He graduated with dis- tinction in medicine at Transylvania, now [63] In the Poe Circle the University of Kentucky, in or about 1828. The statement which has been made that he was a graduate of Yale is erroneous. " He cared only for the scientific cult of his profession," Mr. Adams says, "though to the day of his death he never failed to serve gratis those too poor to hire a doctor. After a few years' practice he chose litera- ture as an occupation, and having always abundant means for his solitary and tem- perate life, he lived and died in the pride of his intellectuality. He despised all mere pretense toward scholarship. Among ordinary people he was a most ' unclub- bable ' man, but among his equals he was a charming companion." His correspondence discloses the fact that he was held in high esteem, and that he was an authority on a wide range of subjects, particularly the Hebrew language and literature. Many of these letters, now in the possession of Mr. Adams, were writ- ten by men of note to Chivers, and among [64] Thomas Holley Chivers them is one by Poe himself, pathetic with lament, mentioning the Stylus^ which he intended to start and of which so much has been written. In this Poe says: "Please lend me $50 for three months — I am so poor and friendless I am half distracted; but I shall be all right when you and I start our magazine." (It was $500 for which Poe had asked Halleck when he started the Broadway Journal.} At the age of twenty-five Chivers went North to live, shortly afterward marrying Miss Harriet Hunt, who is described as having been a woman of great beauty. Four children were born to them. The tragical fact is mentioned that these chil- dren were all carried off by a virulent form of typhoid fever while the family was stay- ing at Digby Manor. A son and two daughters were afterward born and grew up. When the son died, his four children were adopted by his second sister, Mrs. Isabel Brown, now living in Decatur, Ga. [65] In the Poe Circle The other daughter, Mrs. Potter, lives in Connecticut. In 1856 Chivers returned to the South and made his final home in Decatur. A physiological professorship in a medical college in Savannah was offered him, but his health was impaired, and he was obliged to decline the appointment. Mr. Adams mentions that he was a painter, and that he made frequent portraits of his fam- ily. He also made some notable pen-and- ink sketches. He appears to have had an inventive turn of mind as well, for he origi- nated a machine for unwinding the fibre from silk cocoons, a device of so much merit that it received a silver cup at one of the Southern expositions. It is not pleasant to recall the fact that the poet's library, being on the line of Sherman's march to the sea, was destroyed or confiscated, and that all his manuscripts were more or less injured. This was after Chivers 's death, which occurred at Decatur f [66] Thomas Holley Chivers December 18th, 1858. His demise received wide notice in the North, and the breadth of his territory of renown among scholars is indicated by the fact that Professor Gier- low, a Danish author, wrote a beautiful poem on the event. William Gilmore Simms, at that time one of the greatest names in Southern litera- ture, took much interest in Chivers, and called him "the wild Mazeppa of letters." He frequently rallied his friend on his choice of strange words and on "the mo- notony of his sorrow." In good-humored retaliation, no doubt, the doctor advised Simms to cease writing stupid novels and "take up literature as a pleasure." Chivers 's face was of poetic cast. The fine lines of the mouth alone gave it dis- tinction, and the intent, piercing eye and dark, flowing hair, as well as the contour of the head, 'with its massive forehead, com- pleted an intellectual ensemble at least competent for fame. [67] In the Poe Circle The pathetic conclusion of the whole matter of his life and work is embodied in the one word "almost." He did not quite touch the high and ambitious empyrean at which he aimed. There were great visions before him, but he could not put them into perfectly clarified expression. At times he nearly found the vehicle of words that up- lifts us, but some lack of needed impulse or finish, some want of surrounding atmos- phere, or some other partial defect, tells the story of defeat. But there is room enough for a hospitable memory of him, and reason enough to honor his daring. We may put him at least in the Poe rubric, and recall, in exalting Poe, a few of the typical attributes which gave Chivers his place in poetry. [68] Baudelaire and Poe: A Brief Parallel. If we except Boetie and Montaigne, who were distinct contemporaries and personal friends, one may search very far through literary annals to find two writers with closer affinities of thought than Baudelaire and Poe. The French author seems to have been born to celebrate and continue the Poesque aroma and effluence. Not merely their tastes and manner were alike; their careers, too, have close resem- blances. Poe was born in 1809, and his French admirer in 1821 — a dozen years later. Baudelaire's father dying when the son was but six years old placed him very soon under new control. He found himself, the year after this event, under the rule of a stepfather. It is said this foster-parent, [69] In the Poe Circle who was Colonel Aupick, was proud of his stepson, but wished to give him a military career. The determination on the boy's part to be a poet was, however, dominant ; and this collision of plans may have stirred him to the irregularities that followed, and led to his expulsion from college. An English writer said some years ago that Colonel Aupick, having been promoted to a general's position, could have given his stepson a rapid advancement if he had been willing to join the army; but, "to the im- mense surprise of his parents," he would not. Nothing should win him but the pro- fession of letters. "The young man hated his stepfather, the reasons he gave for his hatred being that he was his stepfather, that he was very demonstrative, and that he knew nothing of literature." One must see how nearly like Mr. Allan's attitude to Poe this situation proved to be. Baudelaire flew to Paris from his home [70] Baudelaire and Poe in Lyons, and was charmed with its literary circle and "the magic" of his new world. "He struck up an acquaintance with Bal- zac," says Esme Stuart, "and set up as a ' dandy.' " In the mean time he was work- ing hard; "but when barely twenty years old his mother interfered, and, enforcing her legal authority, sent him to India in or- der to separate him from his evil surround- ings." Within ten months he would tole- rate exile no longer, and returned suddenly to Paris. The writer who gives this account says : " His absence must have helped to give him greater mastery over English, which lan- guage in after years was to bring him to the knowledge of Edgar Allan Poe. When the poet's majority arrived, he found him- self with £3,000 in his pocket and delivered from parental authority. Then began his unfettered bachelor life. He determined, if possible, to be something — to aim at per- fection ; but the taste for beautiful pictures [71] In the Poe Circle and antique furniture led him into extrava- gance little in accordance with his means." Through a dealer more shrewd than hon- est, he was saddled with a burden of in- debtedness that saddened his remaining years. With debts and a vacant pocket- book he could feel the position as well as he could absorb the poetry of Poe. It is a singular double parable that his career pre- sents ; for he had on his creative and un- worldly side the dainty taste and musical charm of his model. The torment for at- taining perfection was his in a marvellous degree. Mr. Stuart describes him as "al- ways touching and retouching his verses, ever consumed by the passion for style, which to the ordinary public is merely an insane mania." Like Poe, he required moods for his work. He was a critic and art lover too. In dress, and in a multitude of ways, he had marked idiosyncrasies. He sympa- thized with democracy ; and for a time was [72] Baudelaire and Poe somewhat demonstrative against aristocratic ways. The revolution of 1848 was in the air, and it touched "his impressionable brain." He was unfortunate in titling a collection of his poems " Fleurs du Mai" He claimed to show that evil was not wholly without its better side, and that good is in some mys- terious manner related to the whole scheme of things. It is an attitude not so unfamil- iar in France as it is in England and Amer- ica. Victor Hugo praised the play of his art by saying: " Art is like the azure — it is an infinite field, and you have just proved it" Good as his work was in the sense of form and art, he had his struggle with editors, as Poe did. For work far more excellent than journalism could show or than editors de- manded he could only obtain the low rates of the journalistic craft. He was a frequent wanderer " in out-of-the-way places, looking worn, wan, and shabby." "No wonder," [73] In the Poe Circle says Mr. Stuart, whose condensed account of him is most graphic, "that more than ever Edgar Poe seemed to him his twin brother of misfortune." He at last "had recourse to stimulants," to put the real away from his vision. To Belgium he hur- ried in despair, and from that country writes thus: "Think what I suffer in a place where the trees are black and the flowers are with- out scent, and where no conversation worth the name can be heard. You might go all over Belgium and not find a soul that speaks." He longs for his mother, " who takes such care not to reproach me." In truth, says this chronicler, "she was another Mrs. Clemm, and the sick man, remembering his childhood, longed for her care and sym- pathy." Not happy with publishers, or in being able to secure a sufficient hope or re- ward for his works, he fell ill. His death, through brain paralysis, was equal in its [74] Baudelaire and Poe tragedy to Poe's — if it did not surpass that unfortunate poet's ending. I have not chosen to dwell upon the moral side of Baudelaire ' s work . There is no room in these notes for a literary parallel to do more than mark that. And how striking and singular a one it is! Baudelaire does not deny that he echoed at times, whether consciously or otherwise, Poe's thoughts. He also gave a large portion of his work to make Poe more widely known. Four of his eight volumes are " consecrated to Poe " and his writings. The two affinities never met, and it is not certain that Baudelaire's name was one with which Poe was ever acquainted. Edgar Al- lan Poe died in 1 849, aged forty, and Charles Baudelaire in 1867, aged forty-six years. In the Poe Circle ^o> ^-=r [76] In the Poe Circle nixnJL, e&M~*y ^n&L eM^'Md ^fl*4 > ^ / $ir O+uaJLl $AU* ~tfu. A%uJt tfcnuMj A*. /Y^y/U^L, (The**. AcMcy. MriUU. ~tki *&zt*yAu* dltn*m*JL'- M*.A*v*t CS A^UJL AvJtP fiJLuAi ituu. /it Avo- %tSf~ An. /oMUk A&UJaje- t. lAvlJL /i» ***- VuuJUJ^u UUUiy aML /Vw Au^rXo— aML faA~ttcbi f^^jh ~" aW £ri-AvU£t*y C Jiut 'fit (UrxruLL cUdjil ffi- ~^^-J^~J^ nM y /G^****-* oT^h**- tMr*MM**d&A&1fi4LiA. tJvfuiCa /V»*«*t, jLoAju**. . Jt^tT lAu*/l a***Ja**J- to /Wiutu, rfL fl*uu. fouA*x.- ~. if**- /ttn^a/vtA^i /»*v *♦»* fauita ito~ VUvt* Ait,; ahfL UUo U Arzt4A^£^~ t ^**L /IMuiJjl, A&A./&OJ [77] In the Poe Circle C 71lniJL/y)L /fUuMv **c A****.' ^ o -0miLc'ytu^z~^ixCtj7 *vuu *M. &*uA. 4***. /CuL [79] Bibliography A Selected List of Magazine Articles Refer- ring to Edgar Allan Poe and his Work Poe, Edgar Allan. Eel. Mag., 1858. Eel. Mag., 1852. Eel. Mag., 1875. Eel. Mag., 1880. J. H. Ingram, Internat. Rev., 1875. The Raven, Liv. Age, 1845. Liv. Age, 1850. Liv. Age, 1852. Liv. Age, 1854. Liv. Age, 1857. Liv. Age, 1858. Liv. Age, 1880. P. P. Cooke, So. Lit. Mess., 1848-1849. So. Lit. Mess., 1854. J. Savage, Dem. R., 1851. J. Purves, Dub. Univ. Rev., 1875. With portrait, E. C. Stedman, Scribner's, 1880. J. W. Dalby, St. James Gaz., 1875. [81] In the Poe Circle Poe, Edin. Rev., 1858. R, W. Griswold, Internat. Mag., 1850. W. Minto, Fortn. Rev., 1880. Fraser, 1857. Tait's Eel. Mag., N. S., 1855. Nat. Mag., 1852. London Q. Rev., 1854 H. A. Huntington, Dial. Irish Q. Rev., 1855. J. H. Morse, Critic, 1884. Leis. Hour, 1855. J. Gartain, Lippinc., 1889. R. H. Stoddard, Lippinc., 1889. W. O. Curtis, Am. Cath. Q., 1891. Ath., 1890. ■ J. L. Onderdonk, Mid-Continent, 1895. W. J. Stillman, Nation, 1875. R. H. Stoddard, Harper's Mag., 1872. Canad. Mo., 1878, C. Whibley, New Rev., 1896. B. M. Ranking, Times, 1882. John Burroughs, Dial, 1893. M. A, De W. Howe, Bookman, 1897. M. A. De W. Howe, Am. Bookm,, with portrait, 1898. and Charles Baudelaire, Liv. Age, 1893. Same art., 19th Cent,, 1893. and Griswold' s Memoir, Temple Bar., 1874. Same art., Eel. Mag., 1874. [a*] Bibliography Poe, and His Biographers, Temple Bar, 1883. and His Biographers, J. H. Ingram, Acad., 1883. and His Mary, A. Van Cleef, Harper's, 1889. and His Writings, Once a Week, 187 1. and Irving, G. P, Lathrop, Scribner's, 1875- and Morality, J. B. Fletcher, Harv. Mo., 1887. and N. Hawthorne, E. Benson, Galaxy, 1868. and the Brownings, J. L. Onderdonk, Dial, 1893. as a Poet, Lit. World, 1882. Bibliography of Lit. World (Bost.), 1882. Did He Plagiarize from Chivers? J. Ben- ton, Forum, 1897. Early Poems of, J, H, Ingram, Every Sat- urday, 1874. Early Poems of, J. H. Ingram, Gent, Mag„, 1874. Eureka, W. H. Browne, Eel. Mag., 1870. Eureka, Addenda to, with Comments, Meth. Rev., 1896. First Books of, L. S. Livingston, Book- man, 1898. Friends of, E. L. Didier, Chautauauan. 1892. [83] In the Poe Circle Poe, Gill's Life of, Radical Rev., 1877. Grave of, L. R. Meekyn, Critic, 1898. House of, at Fordham, M, J. Lamb, Ap- pleton's, 1874. Last Days of, S. A. T. Wiess, Scribner's, 1877. Last Poem; Lititha, H. W. Austin, So. Bivouac, 1886. Last Poem; Lititha, M. J. Kent, So. Biv- ouac, 1886. Legendary Years of, G. E. Woodberry, Atlantic, 1884. Letters, in New York, Century, 1894. Letters, in Philadelphia, Century, 1894, Letters, in the South, Century, 1894. Life and Poetry of, Chambers's Journal,. 1853. Life and Poetry of, Li v. Age, 1853. Life and Works of, Eel. Mag., 1854. Life and Works of, G. B. Smith, Tinsley's. Mag, 1881. Life and Works of, So. Lit. Mess., 1850. Life and Works of, So. Rev., N. S, 1877. Life of, Hogg s Instructor, 1853. Moral Nature of, W. M. Griswold, Nation,. 1895. Morella: a Tale, So. Lit. Mess., 1835. Murder in the Rue Morgue, Logic of, C. O. Hurd, Harv. Mo., 1885. [84] Bibliography Poe, Musical Possibilities of Poems of, C. S. Skilton, Music, 1895. My Adventure with, J. Hawthorne, Lip- pine., 1 89 1. New Light on, Critic, 1891. Not to Be Apotheosized, H. T. Harring- ton, Critic, 1885. Personality of, A. Yorgan, Munsey, 1897. Poems, Acad., 1882. Poems, American and English Criticism of, A. Lamson, Christian Examiner, 1844. Poems of, Am. Whig. Rev., 1845. Poems of , Dub. Univ. Mag., 1853. Politan, J. H. Ingram, So. Mag., 1875. Portraits of, E. L. Didier, Lit. World, 1885. Raven : Illustrated by Dor£, Sat. Rev. > 1883. Raven : Writing of, F. A. Mathews, Bach. of Arts, 1896. - Recent Works on, 1880, T. W. Higgin- son, Nation, 1880. - Recent Works on, 1880, E. L. Didier, Internat. Rev., 1881. - Recollections of, H. Paul, Munsey, 1892. - Reminiscences of, H. P. Rosenbach, America, 1887. - Scenes from an Unpublished Drama, So. Lit. Mess., 1836. L85] In the Poe Circle Poe, Significance of, W. Whitman, Critic, 1882. Some Words with a Mummy, Am, Whig. Rev., 1845. Tales and Poems, Canad. Journal, 1857. Tales of, Am, Whig. Rev., 1845. Tales of, Blackwood's, 1847. The New Poe, Atlantic, 1896, The Raven, Am. Whig. Rev., '1845. The Raven, So. Lit. Mess., 1857. The Raven, Poe's Opinion of, J. Benton, Forum, 1897. Three Sonnets on, E. F. Pellow, Theatre, '82, 1882. Unknown Poetry of, Belgravia, 1876, Unpublished Correspondence of, Apple- ton's, 1878. Vindication of, St. James Gaz., 1876. Was He Mad? F G Fairchild, Scribner's, 1875 Woodberry's Life of, Amer., 1885. Woodberry's Life of, Atlantic, 1885. Woodberry's Life of, Critic, 1885. Woodberry's Life of, T. W. Higginson, Nation, 1858. Works of, Dem. R., 1856. Works of, Lit World (Bost), 1884. Works, Ed. by Stedman and Woodberry, D. L. Yaulsby, Dial, 1896. L861 Bibliography Poe, Works, Ed. by Stoddard, Sat. Rev., 1896. Works of, W. H Browne, So. Mag., 1875. Writings of, J. Purves, Dub. Univ. Mag., 1875. Writings of, Mrs. E V. Smith, No. Amer. Rev., 1856. SEP S7 1899