Text: Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Ollive Mabbott, “Anne C. Lynch” The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Vol. IV: The Literati of New York City (2026), pp. 143-145 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 143:]

ANNE C. LYNCH.(1)

Miss Anne Charlotte Lynch has written little; — her compositions are even too few to be collected in volume form. Her prose has been, for the most part, anonymous — critical papers in “The New York Mirror” and elsewhere, with unacknowledged contributions to the annuals, especially “The Gift,” and “The Diadem,” both of Philadelphia. Her “Diary of a Recluse,”(2) published in the former work, is, perhaps, the best specimen of her prose manner and ability. I remember, also, a fair critique on Fanny Kemble's poems; — this appeared in “The Democratic Review.”

In poetry, however, she has done better, and given evidence of at least unusual talent. Some of her compositions in this way are of merit, and one or two of excellence. In the former class I place her “Bones in the Desert,”(3) published in “The Opal” for 1846, her “Farewell to Ole Bull,”(4) first printed in “The Tribune,” and one or two of her sonnets — not forgetting some graceful and touching lines on the death of Mrs. Willis.(5) In the latter class I place two noble poems, “The Ideal” and “The Ideal Found.”(6) These should be considered as one, for each is by itself imperfect. In modulation and vigor of rhythm, in dignity and elevation of sentiment, in metaphorical appositeness and accuracy, and in energy of expression, I really do not know where to point out anything American much superior to them. Their ideality is not so manifest as their passion, but I think it an unusual indication of taste in Miss Lynch, or (more strictly) of an intuitive sense of poetry's true nature, that this passion is just sufficiently subdued to lie within the compass of the poetic art, within the limits of the beautiful. A step farther and it might have passed them. Mere passion, however exciting, prosaically excites; it is in its very essence homely, and delights in homeliness: but the triumph over passion, as so finely depicted in the two poems mentioned, is one of the purest and most idealizing manifestations of moral beauty.

In character Miss Lynch is enthusiastic, chivalric, self-sacrificing, “equal to any Fate,”(7) capable of even martyrdom in whatever should seem to her a holy cause — a most exemplary daughter. She has her hobbies, however, (of which a very indefinite idea of “duty” is one,) and is, of course, readily imposed upon by any artful person who perceives and takes advantage of this most amiable failing.(8)

In person she is rather above the usual height, somewhat slender, with dark hair and eyes — the whole countenance at times full of intelligent expression.(9) Her demeanor is dignified, graceful, and noticeable for repose. She goes much into literary society.

[[Notes]]

[page 144:]

1. Anne Charlotte Lynch, November 11, 1815 - November 23, 1891; in 1855 married Professor Vicenzo Botta, a teacher of Italian. It was at her salons at 116 Waverly Place, Greenwich Village, that Poe often met with many of the Literati, and probably conceived the idea of writing them up; although the notion must have been dormant at least in his mind from the time he wrote the first of his “Autography” papers, in 1836. Poe said that his “Literati” sketches were inserted at random, but on July 16, 1846, he wrote to L. A. Godey, “Please put Miss Lynch in the next number.”

Among those frequenting the salon were Griswold, Bayard Taylor, Stoddard, Willis, Mrs. Osgood, Miss Bogart, Gillespie, Dr. Francis, Hoyt, Mrs. Stephens, Mrs. Kirkland, Mrs. Embury, Mrs. Hewitt, Miss Sedgwick, Mrs. Oakes Smith, Dr. Thomas Ward (Flaccus), Morris, Halleck and Bryant. Vistors also included Locke, Hunt, Headley, Mrs. Ellet, Henry Norman Hudson the Shakespearean, and Joel Tanner Hart the sculptor. See Harrison, I, 241-246, for accounts by Stoddard and Mrs. Whitman.

It was at Miss Lynch's salon that Poe read “The Raven” on July 19, 1845. See also the notes on the Poems, “To Helen Whitman,” “A Valentine,” “To Miss Hunter,” and “Impromptu to Kate Carol.”

On one occasion, according to some friend of Mrs. Whitman:

. . . a controversy . . . took place between Margaret Fuller and Poe, about some writer whom . . . the lady had been annihilating . . . Poe, espousing the cause of the vanquished, with a few keen, incisive rejoinders, obtained such ascendancy over the eloquent and oracular woman, that somebody whispered, [page 145:] “The Raven has perched upon the casque of Pallas, and pulled all the feathers out of her cap.” [[See Mrs. Whitman's “Introductory Letter” of July 1876 to E. L. Didier, published in his edition of Poe's Poems, New York: W. J. Widdleton, 1877, p. 12 — JAS]]

2. “Leaves from the Diary of a Recluse” is in The Gift for 1845 [[(pp. 120-122)]].

3. “Bones in the Desert” is in The Opal for 1846 [[(pp. 120-122)]] was praised in the Broadway Journal, December 27, 1845. It is collected in Miss Lynch's Poems [[(New York: G. P. Putnam, pp. 130-132)]]

4. “Farewell to Ole Bull” [[the famous violinist]] in the Tribune, November 27, 1845, was praised in the Broadway Journal, December 6, 1845, and collected in her Poems [[(pp. 73-75)]].

5. “Lines on the Death of Mrs. N. P. Willis” is in the Tribune, April 5, 1845; it was reprinted in several newspapers at the time, but not thereafter. In her 1849 Poems, Miss Lynch reprinted a dirge “On the Death of Mrs. N. P. Willis” [[(pp. 21-23)]] from the Evening Mirror of April 1, 1845. The first Mrs. Willis died in childbirth, March 25, 1845.

6. “The Ideal” and “The Ideal Found” were in the Harbinger, June 20, 1845, reprinted in the Broadway Journal, June 21, 1845, and in the 1849 Poems [[(pp. 93-98)]].

7. Compare Byron, “To Thomas Moore,” “Here's a heart for ev’ry fate;” and Longfellow, “Psalm of Life,” “a heart for any fate.”

8. The reference is to Mrs. Ellet stirring up Miss Lynch and Miss Fuller to interfere in the squabble over Mrs. Osgood's letters.

9. From portraits one can see that Miss Lynch was very beautiful.