The Bells
1
Magical verse; a rune was a letter in the archaic Anglo-Saxon alphabet.
For Annie
1
Perhaps no other poem pertains more closely to a specific event in Poe’s life, here, the crisis of November 1848 in which the distraught poet swallowed laudanum hoping to bring “Annie” Richmond to his bedside.
2
Naphthaline is a clear compound derived from petroleum or tar and is used in making dyes, solvents, and explosives. Its figurative sense here seems to be that of a toxic, perhaps flammable influence.
3
Poe may be punning on the etymology of pansy, which (as he knew) derived from the French word for thought,
pensée
; the floral reference thus alludes to his thoughts of Mrs. Richmond, who lived in Massachusetts and possibly represented herself to Poe as a daughter of the Puritans.
Eldorado
1
The idea of a city of gold, a place of longed-for riches, also figures in Poe’s “Dream-Land,” but by 1849, “Eldorado” had become synonymous with California, and this poem hints that the quest for instant wealth may be a delusion. See Poe’s letter to Frederick W. Thomas of February 14, 1849, for further reflections on the gold rush.
CRITICAL PRINCIPLES
The Prose Tale (from a review of Hawthorne’s
Twice-Told Tales
)
1.
The phrase may be translated, One proceeds most prudently by following a middle course.
The Object of Poetry (from “Letter to B—”)
1
Poe translates Aristotle’s
Poetics
somewhat inaccurately.
2
About all that can be known and certain other things.
4
Most sects are right in much of what they advocate but wrong in what they deny.
The Philosophy of Composition
American Criticism
1
Theodore Fay was an editor of the
New York Mirror
and author of the novel
Norman Leslie
, which Poe savaged in 1835, as much for the extravagant “puffing” of the volume as for its flimsiness.
2
About all things and certain others.
3
Belier, my friend, begin at the beginning. Poe alludes to
Le Bélier
, an exotic tale by the Irish-French author Anthony Hamilton.
OBSERVATIONS
Some Secrets of the Magazine Prison-House
1
National spirit. Foster and Scott were New York publishers who reprinted cheap editions of British journals for the American literary market.
2
Mulberry tree (on which silkworms feed).
American Literary Independence
2
Poe refers to John Wilson, editor of
Blackwood’s Magazine
, who in the persona of “Christopher North” delivered dismissive opinions about American writers (such as Lowell).
4
That is, to the most remote sites of competing interest.
The Soul and the Self
Poetical Irritability
Genius and Proportionate Intellect
Adaptation and the Plots of God
1
Commencing in 1833, a series of philosophical and theological monographs by different authors on the general subject of God’s “power, wisdom, and goodness,” especially as manifested in the natural world. The project was instituted by Reverend Francis Henry Egerton, the eighth Earl of Bridgewater.
Works of Genius
1
Wonderful diligence or incredible industry.
Magazine Literature in America
Art and the Soul
1
Zeuxis and Parrhasius, Greek painters of the fifth century B.C., competed to produce the most realistic painting imaginable. Zeuxis painted a cluster of grapes that birds attempted to eat; Parrhasius then showed Zeuxis a veiled painting that, when Zeuxis attempted to lift the veil, proved to be part of the painting itself.
Selected Bibliography
FIRST EDITIONS OF POE’S WORKS (BOOKS)
Poe, Edgar Allan.
Tamerlane and Other Poems. By a Bostonian
. Boston: Calvin F. S. Thomas—Printer, 1827.
———.
Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, By Edgar A. Poe
. Baltimore: Hatch & Dunning, 1829.
———.
Poems by Edgar A. Poe . . . Second Edition
. New York: Elam Bliss, 1831.
———.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1838.
———.
Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840.
———.
The Prose Romances of Edgar A. Poe
. No. 1. Philadelphia: William H. Graham, 1843.
———.
Tales
. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.
———.
The Raven and Other Poems
. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1845.
———.
Eureka: A Prose Poem
. New York: Putnam, 1848.
LATER EDITIONS
Griswold, Rufus W., ed.
The Works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe
. 4 vols. New York: J. S. Redfield, 1850-56.
Harrison, James A., ed.
The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe
. Virginia Edition. 17 vols. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902.
Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed.
Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe
. 3 vols. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969, 1978.
Pollin, Burton R.
Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe: Imaginary Voyages
. Boston: Twayne, 1981; rpt. New York: Gordian Press, 1994.
———.
The Brevities: Pinakidia, Marginalia, and Other Works
. New York: Gordian Press, 1985.
———.
Nonfictional Writings in the Broadway Journal.
New York: Gordian Press, 1986.
———.
Broadway Journal Annotations.
New York: Gordian Press, 1986.
———.
Nonfictional Southern Literary Messenger Prose
. New York: Gordian Press, 1997.
Quinn, Patrick F., ed.
Poetry and Tales
. New York: Library of America, 1984.
Thompson, G. R., ed.
Essays and Reviews
. New York: Library of America, 1984.
LETTERS
Poe, Edgar Allan.
The Letters of Edgar Allan Poe
. Edited by John Ward Ostrom. 2 vols. 1949; rpt. New York: Gordian Press, 1966.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dameron, J. Lasley, and Irby B. Cauthen, Jr.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Bibliography of Criticism, 1827-1967
. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1974.
Hyneman, Esther F.
Edgar Allan Poe: An Annotated Bibliography of Books and Articles in English, 1827-1973
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1974.
BIOGRAPHY
Bittner, William.
Poe: A Biography
. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1962.
Meyers, Jeffrey.
Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy
. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1992.
Miller, John Carl.
Building Poe Biography
. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography
. 1941; rpt. New York: Cooper Square, 1969.
Silverman, Kenneth.
Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance
. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Thomas, Dwight, and David K. Jackson.
The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
CRITICISM: BOOKS
Allen, Michael.
Poe and the British Magazine Tradition
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
Auerbach, Jonathan.
The Romance of Failure: First-Person Fictions of Poe,
Hawthorne, and James
. New York: Oxford University Press; 1989. Bloom, Harold, ed.
The Tales of Poe
. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.
Bonaparte, Marie.
The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation
. Trans. John Rodker. London: Imago Publishing Company, 1949.
Budd, Louis J., and Edwin H. Cady, eds.
On Poe
. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993.
Carlson, Eric W., ed.
Critical Essays on Edgar Allan Poe
. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
———, ed.
The Recognition of Edgar Allan Poe
. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1966.
Davidson, Edward.
Poe, a Critical Study
. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1957.
Dayan, Joan.
Fables of Mind: An Inquiry into Poe’s Fiction
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
Fiedler, Leslie.
Love and Death in the American Novel
. New York: Dell, 1966.
Fisher IV, Benjamin Franklin, ed.
Poe and His Times
. Baltimore: Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1990.
Goddu, Teresa.
Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation
. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Halliburton, David.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Phenomenological View
. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.
Hayes, Kevin, ed.
Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe
. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Hoffman, Daniel.
Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe
. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972.
Howarth, William L., ed.
Twentieth Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales: A Collection of Critical Essays
. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Irwin, John.
American Hieroglyphics: The Symbol of the Egyptian Hieroglyphics in the American Renaissance
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1980.
———.
The Mystery to a Solution: Poe, Borges, and the Analytical Detective Story
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Jacobs, Robert D.
Poe: Journalist and Critic
. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.
Kennedy, J. Gerald, ed.
A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
———.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and the Abyss of Interpretation
. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1995.
———
. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing
. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Ketterer, David.
The Rationale of Deception in Poe
. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.
Kopley, Richard, ed.
Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations
. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992.
Levin, Harry.
The Power of Blackness: Hawthorne, Poe, Melville
. New York: Vintage, 1958.
Levine, Stuart.
Edgar Allan Poe: Seer and Craftsman
. Deland, FL: Everett/Edwards, 1972.
May, Charles.
Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of the Short Fiction
. Boston: Twayne, 1991.
McGill, Meredith.
American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
Miller, Perry.
The Raven and the Whale: The War of Words and Wits in the Era of Poe and Melville
. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956.
Moss, Sidney.
Poe’s Literary Battles
. Durham: Duke University Press, 1963.
Muller, John P., and William J. Richardson.
The Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and Psychoanalytic Reading
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988.
Nelson, Dana.
National Manhood: Capitalist Citizenship and the Imagined Fraternity of White Men
. Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.
———.
The Word in Black and White
. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Peeples, Scott.
The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe
. Rochester: Camden House, 2004.
———.
Edgar Allan Poe Revisited
. New York: Twayne, 1998.
Person, Leland S.
Aesthetic Headaches: Women and a Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville, and Hawthorne
. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1988.
Pollin, Burton R.
Discoveries in Poe
. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1970.
Porte, Joel.
The Romance in America: Studies in Cooper, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and James
. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1969.
Quinn, Patrick F.
The French Face of Edgar Allan Poe
. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1957.
Regan, Robert, ed.
Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays
. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967.
Renza, Louis A.
Edgar Allan Poe, Wallace Stevens, and the Poetics of American Privacy
. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2002.
Reynolds, David.
Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville
. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Rosenheim, Shawn.
The Cryptographic Imagination: Secret Writing from Edgar Poe to the Internet
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
———, and Stephen Rachman, eds.
The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Rowe, John Carlos.
Through the Custom-House: Nineteenth-Century American Fiction and Modern Theory
. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.