Text: James H. Whitty, “Discoveries in the Uncollected Poems of Edgar Allan Poe,” The Nation (New York, NY), vol. CII, January 27, 1916, pp. 105-106

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The last collection of poems published by Edgar Allan Poe during his lifetime, in 1845, numbered thirty. With those not included tn that selection, and new poems afterwards published, the poems in 1875 totalled forty-eight. One new poem was added that year. The collection remained almost unchanged for thirty-six years until 1911, when eight new poems were added, and two of his poems appearing among his prose were properly brought into his metrical works. Now three more new poems are added, making the collection stand with a total of sixty-two.

It is worthy of remark that a number of new and important Poe discoveries were made of late years after several reinvestigations among the Griswold Poe collection. The latest new Poe manuscript poem came to light after further investigation among the Ellis & Allan papers deposited in the Library of Congress at Washington. An account of some previous Poe discoveries among these same manuscripts was published in the Nation of July 18, 1912.

The new manuscript poem is without title by Poe, but is called “Life's Vital Stream” from the context While this poem appears unmistakably written with a very bad quill still the autograph is unquestionably Poe's The poem follows:

There were also found in the same collection with this manuscript poem four other documents in Poe's handwriting. They were copies of an old English ballad called “Ally Croaker”; “Extracts from Byron's Dream”; “The Burial of Sir John Moore,” and Goldsmith's “Song. From the Oratorio of the Captivity.” Some of the handwriting on these closely approximates Poe's well-known later day autograph.

The manuscript of “The Burial of Sir John Moore” indicates that Poe may have intended this for some newspaper or magazine He made a heading, “The Soldier's Burial,’ and wrote the following introduction:

“These verses have been often and justly admired as the only original essay on so hackney’d a subject as a Burial which has appeared for a long time — They are on the burial of Sir John Moore — Much dispute has arisen concerning the writer of this really elegant & original production, Moore, Campbell, Scott & Byron have all been mentioned as the supposed writer — It has since been pretty well ascertained to be Byron — As for the piece itself it is inimitable. The Poet, the Patriot, and the man of feeling breathes thro’ the whole, and a strain of originality gives a zest to this [page 106:] little piece, which is seldom felt on the perusal of others of the same kind.” This may stand as Poe's earliest known criticism.

It flavors strongly of a juvenile effort of his from the slip in attributing the poem to Byron, instead of to the Rev. Charles Wolf. All the evidence tends to show that Poe was employed in the warehouse of the old firm of Ellis & Allan at Richmond, Virginia, from about January until May, 1827, during which period all the above late-found documents are believed to have been written.

The two other new poems were discovered in an old leather-bound copy of Graham's Magazine for 1845-6, once owned by Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood, the poetess of whom a romance with Poe is recorded. This copy of Graham's came from the library of Rufus Griswold, Poe's early biographer, and contains the autograph and markings of Mrs. Osgood. In the August number of that magazine, Mrs. Osgood has marked a short story of hers called “Ida Grey,” which reads, especially with her markings, as if she had made Poe the hero of her tale The descriptions in the story answer for Poe's, as well as other matters. An underscored paragraph reads: “He bids me tell him that I love him, as proudly as if he had a right, an unquestionable, an undoubted, a divine right to demand my love. Ah! with what grand and simple eloquence he writes.” This might also correspond with some of Poe's other well-known romantic correspondence.

In response to her reference to the “divine right,” Poe published in the October number of Graham's an impromptu poem entitled “The Divine Right of Kings,” and signed it “P,” which is made to read “E. A. Poe” by Mrs. Osgood. The poem follows:

Mrs. Osgood used the pen name of “Ellen,” and one of her children was called by the same name. She wrote verses for Poe's Broadway Journal at that period, to which Poe responded in verse, but towards the close of the year 1845 there seems to have grown some misunderstanding between them. In the December number of Graham's is a poem called “Stanzas,” to which Mrs. Osgood has added in pencil, “To F. S. O.”; also changing the end signature of “P” to read “E. A. Poe.” The lines are supposed to have been sent to Mrs. Osgood by Poe to impress upon her the thoughts of a final parting; still he continued to write to her. The poem reads as follows:

In Graham's for February, 1846, Mrs. Osgood has some lines called “Caprice,” which are answers to Poe's letter charging her with “Change, with every changing hour.” It is believed, as Mrs. Osgood has written, that after this they never met again, although there seemed to remain a mutual feeling of tenderness between them until the end.

Among other recent Poe discoveries is a manuscript signed by Poe of a new version of his poem “To One in Paradise,” which title he changed to “To One Departed”; as well as matters establishing a visit of Poe in Scotland.

(Copyright, 1915, by J. H. Whitty.)