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[page 68, column 1, continued:]
DISTRESSING MISQUOTATION.
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
It is probable that the Anthology of Mr. Stedman will be regarded by the judicious as proof of the poverty of our American poetic lore rather than as convincing evidence of our riches. It will be generally conceded, however, that Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe was a real poet; only his contributions are so small. But one of his most characteristic and attractive gems is marred in Mr. Stedman's book by one of the most diabolical blunders of misquotation in all the annals of printing; and this will be copied no doubt unwittingly many times. I refer to the lines “To One in Paradise”:
“And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances
And where thy footstep gleams —
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams.”
Instead of “dark eye” Mr. Stedman has “gray eye”!
“Gray eye glances”! That distressing alliteration would have ruined the fame of Milton.
S.
Little Rock, Ark., January 22, 1901.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - DIAL, 1902] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Distressing Misquotation (S, 1902)