“To M——L——S——,”
addressed to Mrs. Marie Louise Shew, was written in
February 1847, and published shortly afterwards.
In the first posthumous collection of Poe’s
poems these lines were, for some reason, included
in the “Poems written in Youth,” and amongst
those poems they have hitherto been included.
* * * * *
16. (2) TO MARIE LOUISE (SHEW)
“To——,” a second piece
addressed to Mrs. Shew, and written in 1848, was also
first published, but in a somewhat faulty form, in
the above named posthumous collection.
* * * * *
17. THE CITY IN THE SEA
Under the title of “The Doomed City” the
initial version of “The City in the Sea”
appeared in the 1831 volume of Poems by Poe: it
reappeared as “The City of Sin,” in the
‘Southern Literary Messenger’ for August
1835, whilst the present draft of it first appeared
in Colton’s ’American Review’ for
April, 1845.
* * * * *
18. THE SLEEPER
As “Irene,” the earliest known version
of “The Sleeper,” appeared in the 1831
volume. It reappeared in the ‘Literary Messenger’
for May 1836, and, in its present form, in the ‘Broadway
Journal’ for May 1845.
* * * * *
19. THE BRIDAL BALLAD
“The Bridal Ballad” is first discoverable
in the ’Southern Literary Messenger’ for
January 1837, and, in its present compressed and revised
form, was reprinted in the ‘Broadway Journal’
for August, 1845.
* * * *
*
POEMS OF MANHOOD.
* * * *
*
Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit
flown forever!
Let the bell toll!—a saintly
soul floats on the Stygian river.
And, Guy de Vere, hast thou no
tear?—weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies
thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read—the
funeral song be sung!—
An anthem for the queenliest dead that
ever died so young—
A dirge for her, the doubly dead in that
she died so young.
“Wretches! ye loved her for her
wealth and hated her for her pride,
And when she fell in feeble health, ye
blessed her—that she died!
How shall the ritual, then, be
read?—the requiem how be sung
By you—by yours, the evil eye,—by
yours, the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocence that died,
and died so young?”
Peccavimus; but rave not thus!
and let a Sabbath song Go up to God so solemnly
the dead may feel no wrong! The sweet Lenore
hath “gone before,” with Hope, that flew
beside, Leaving thee wild for the dear child that
should have been thy bride— For her,
the fair and debonnaire, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her
