Fordham -- Ap. 1 -- 49.My Dear Sir,In reply to your very flattering request for an autograph poem, I have the honor of copying for you the subjoined lines just written. As they will be sold to one of our periodicals, may I beg of you not to let them pass out of your possession until published?
Very respectfully,A, G, Chester, Esq.
Yr. ob. St.
Edgar A. Poe
..................................................... For Annie. ..................................................... Thank Heaven! — the crisis —
The danger is past,
And the lingering illness
Is over at last —
And the fever called "Living"
Is conquered at last.—— Might start at beholding me,
Thinking me dead.—— The moaning and groaning,
The sighing and sobbing,
Are quieted now; with
The horrible throbbingSadly, I know, I am
Shorn of my strength,
And no muscle I move,
As I lie at full length —
But no matter! — I feel
I am better at length.—— At heart: — oh, that horrible,
Horrible throbbing!—— The sickness — the nausea —
The pitiless pain —
Have ceased, with the fever
That maddened my brain —And I rest so composedly
Now, in my bed,
That any beholder
Might fancy me dead —With the fever called "Living"
That burned in my brain.——
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..................................................... .... .... ... ...... ..................................................... And ah, of all tortures
That torture the worst
Has abated — the terrible
Torture of thirst
For the napthaline rivers
Of Passion accurst ! —
I have drank of a water
That quenches all thirst: ——— For now, while so quietly
Lying, I fancy
A holier odor about me,
of pansy —
A rosemary odor
Commingled with pansies —
With rue and the beautiful
Puritan pansy—— Of a water that flows,
With a lullaby sound,
From a spring but a very few
Feet under ground —
From a cavern not very far
Down under ground.—— And so I lie happily
Bathing in many
A dream of the love
And the beauty of Annie —
Drowned in a bath
Of the tresses of Annie.—— And ah! let it never be
Foolishly said
That my room it is gloomy
And narrow my bed;
For man never slept
In a different bed —
And, to sleep, you must slumber
In just such a bed.—— She tenderly kissed me —
She fondly caressed —
And then I fell gently
To sleep on her breast —
Deeply to sleep from the
Heaven of her breast.—— When the light was extinguished,
She covered me warm,My tantalized spirit here
Blandly reposes,
Forgetting, or never
Regretting, its roses —
Its old agitations
Of myrtles and roses.And she prayed to the angels
To keep me from harm —
To the queen of the angels
To shield me from harm.——
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..................................................... .... .... ... ...... ..................................................... And I lie so composedly
Now, in my bed,
(Knowing her love)
That you fancy me dead —
And I rest so contentedly
Now in my bed,
(With her love at my breast)
That you fancy me dead —
That you shudder to look at me,
Thinking me dead: —But my heart it is brighter
Than all of the many
Stars of the sky —
Sparkles with Annie —
It glows with the light
Of the love of my Annie —
With the thought of the light
Of the eyes of my Annie.——
[This letter was purchased by the Lilly Library about 1984, and therefore unknown to Ostrom. Accompanying the letter is a manuscript of "For Annie." Anson Gleason Chester was a young Presbyterian minister, living in Saratoga Springs in New York. The back of the letter is inscribed, as an envelope, in the middle, "A. G. Chester, Esqr. [/] Saratoga Springs, [/] N. Y." and in the lower left corner "EAP". The letter is postmarked New York, with the date of April 2, and the charge of 5 cents. The letter was first described in the Post Express (Rochester, NY) on April 2, 1887 in an article about the collection of E. Kirke Hart (1841-1893). After being acquired by the Lilly Library, it was printed, with a facsimile of the letter and poem, in J. Albert Robbins, "New Poe Manuscript Finds a Home at the Lilly," The Friends of the Lilly Library Newsletter, Indiana: The Indiana University Foundation, Number 6, Spring 1985, pp. 1-4. It was then published, with very fine photographs of the three pages and a textual study of the poem, in J. Albert Robbins, "A New Manuscript of Poe's 'For Annie'," Studies in Bibliography, Charlottesville, Virginia: The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, 1986, pp. 261-265.]
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