SOURCE: "Culmination of a Campaign," in Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Literary Milieu, Duke University Press, 1963, pp. 132-89.

In a detailed analysis of the Poe-Longfellow literary war, Moss argues that Poe's evaluation of Longfellow's literary capabilities, though over-harsh at times, was ultimately accurate and based on carefully workedout critical principles.

.. . I am but defending a set of principles which no honest man need be ashamed of defending, and for whose defence no honest man will consider an apology required.—Edgar A. Poe

Poe's encounters with Longfellow have aroused so much emotionalism in Poe and Longfellow partisans that to look at the evidence afresh and with detachment requires the utmost self-discipline. To forestall such emotionalism from prejudicing the evidence, let it be repeated here that our purpose is not so much to defend Poe as a critic but to understand him in that capacity...