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[page 102, column 3, continued:]
G. D. B., a correspondent of the London Spectator, brings forward a curious alleged plagiarism by the late Edgar A. Poe. In a recent English edition of his poems is one entitled “To One in Paradise.” It is also to be found in Redfield's American edition, vol. IL p. 33. This is the poem as uttered by Poe
“TO ONE IN PARADISE.
“Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine —
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers:
And all the flowers were mine.
“Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
‘On! On!” but o’er the Past
(Dim Gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aglıast.
“For, alas! alas! with me
The light of life is o’er!
‘No more-no more-no more’
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore.)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar.
“And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams —
In what etherial dances,
By what eternal streams.” [page 103:]
The following is the poem attributed to Tennyson. It is not in the last edition of his writings, but the English writer says — “I have in my possession, for some years, & manuscript which I believe, on good authority, to be the composition of the present Laureate, and which certainly bears a remarkable resemblance to the American poem:” —
I.
“Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine —
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed around about with flowers:
And the flowers they all were mine.
II.
“But the dream it could not last,
And the star of life did rise
Only to be overcast.
A voice from out the Future cries,
‘Onward!’ while o’er the Past
My spirit hovering lies.
III.
“Like the murmur of the solemn seas
To sands on the seashore,
A voice is whispering unto me,
“Thy day is past;” and never more
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar.
IV.
“And all mine hours are trances,
And all my nights are dreams
Of where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams —
In the maze of flashing dances,
By the slow Italian streams.”
We trust the Spectator will give us a more particular account of the English poem. Has it been published and when? or does it only exist in manuscript? Poe's poem was published in his collection of poems in 1845. He probably published it earlier in a magazine. Taking the matter as it is here stated — and some of the literary habits of Poe as recorded by his biographer Dr. Griswold, would render it not improbable — it is curious to note the peculiar alterations of the Tennysonian original, the engrafting of one or two of Poe's tricks of words — ”no more — no more — no more,” and the characteristic change of the “Italian streams” into the vague “etherialities.”
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Notes:
The issue of February 19, 1853 prints a short item with Tennyson's letter (p. 147, col. 2).
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[S:0 - LW, 1853] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Poe, Poets, etc. (Anonymous, 1853)