Text: Anonymous, “The Poe Monument,” Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. LXXVI, no. 140, April 27, 1875, p. 1, col. 5

[page 1, column 5, continued:]

THE POE MONUMENT. — The New York Tribune of yesterday criticises with tasteful acerbity the following, which it alleges is to be the inscription on the Poe monument to be erected in Westminster churchyard in this city: “Edgar A Poe, born Jan. 19, 1811; died Oct. 7, 1849; author of The Raven. My tantalized spirit here blandly reposes.” The Tribune says: “The inscription is not only an injustice to Mr. Poe, but an impertinence to the reader, who may be supposed to know who wrote “The Raven.” If he does not know, of what interest is the tomb to him? If he knows nothing of Poe, the stone tells him nothing; if he knows all about him, the information is no information at all. Of the line ‘My tantalized spirit here blandly reposes,’ we need say nothing. except that it is a falsehood. Blandly reposing or still ‘tantalized,’ the spirit is not there.” Which is all very well, except that no inscription for the monument has yet been resolved upon, and that the intelligent gentlemen in charge of the matter have too much taste to render themselves obnoxious to any such criticism.