Text: John Neal, [Review of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems], Ladies’ Magazine and Literary Gazette (Boston, MA), Vol. III, no. 1, January 1830, p. 47


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[page 47, continued:]

AL AARAAF, TAMERLANE &c. by Edgar A. Poe. Baltimore. Hatch & Dumming [[Dunning]]. It is very difficult to speak of these poems as they deserve. A part are exceedingly boyish, feeble, and altogether deficient in the common characteristics of poetry; but then we have parts [[,]] and parts too of considerable length, which remind us of no less a poet than Shelley. The author who appears to be very young, is evidently a fine genius, but he wants judgment, experience, tact.


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Notes:

This review is attributed by Ian Walker as John Neal (Edgar Allan Poe: The Critical Heritage, 1984, p. 69), based on an assumption of comments made in the Philadelphia Saturday Museum of March 4, 1843. In The Poe Log, Dwight Thomas and David K. Jackson print the excerpt, and deny that the author is John Neal or Sarah J. Hale, but do not identify another name. While the Saturday Museum does refer to a review by Neal, Walker appears to be in error in conflating it with the present review.

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[S:0 - LMLG, 1830] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Notice of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems (John Neal, 1830)