Text: Anonymous, “The Raven,” Western Daily Press (Bristol, Avon, England), vol. XIII, whole no. 1,941, August 13, 1864, p. 3, col. 3

[page 3, column 3, continued:]

“THE RAVEN.” — The London correspondent of the Western Morning News says: — Speaking of poetry recalls a very singular circumstance that has recently been talked about, and which is probably new to most readers. Every one has read or heard that wonderful poem of Edgar Poe's — “The Raven” — and probably most of those who have read it know also of the very singular essay in which the poet explains the manner in which the poem was composed. He tells them how he came to make choice of the particular metre, how the burden suggested itself to his mind, how the last verse was written first and the others to lead gradually up to it, with a variety of minute and particular details, all tending to show its originality. The whole of this essay turns out to be as ingenious a fiction as any of the “tales of mystery” with which it is usually bound up. Poe's sole accomplishment was a minute and accurate acquaintance with Oriental languages, and this he turned to account by translating almost literally the poem of “The Raven” from the Persian, The translation is so minute and accurate that even the cadences are preserved throughout, while the curious repetition of rhymes by which it is distinguished is equally characteristic of the work of the Persian poet. As a singular specimen of a literary imposture such a matter as this deserves notice. The discovery is due to the well-known Eastern traveller, Mr. Lang, formerly of the Bombay service, and has since been corroborated, I hear, by some of the most celebrated Orientalists in England.