Text: John E. Reilly, “Mrs. Osgood's Contributions to the Poe-Osgood Literary Courtship,” Poe in Imaginative Literature, dissertation, 1965, pp. 173-184 (This material is protected by copyright)

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The Broadway Journal carried a total of eleven poems by Mrs. Osgood between her first meeting with Poe in March of 1845 and the demise of the Journal at the close of the year.(1) It was noted in Chapter II of this study that estimates vary on the precise number of these poems which belong to the so-called Poe-Osgood literary courtship. Estimates vary because the center of focus in most of these poems is upon the sentimental personae Mrs. Osgood assumes and not upon the individual addressed, an individual who remains a shadowy figure, the conventional lover who is teased, scolded, encouraged, and scorned. Although it is not possible to ascertain precisely which of the eleven poems belong to the courtship series, an effort is made in the following pages to identify the most likely candidates.

The Broadway Journal for April 5, 1845, carried the first of Mrs. Osgood's poems. Entitled “The Rivulet's Dream” and signed “Kate Carol,” the poem can be identified as Mrs. Osgood's by its republication in the 1850 edition of her poems.(2) “The Rivulet's Dream” is a romantic allegory about a “careless rill” which dreamed “one fragrant summer night” that [page 174:]

The rill entreated the star to “‘fold thy shining wings’” and “‘dwell with me” forever. When morning came, however, the rivulet awakened to find that

It is difficult to see how in this elusive allegory Mrs. Osgood could be understood to address herself specifically to Poe. Nevertheless, in an accompanying editorial note confessing that he has guessed the identity of “Kate Carol,” Poe conveys his suspicion that the poem bore some special significance for him:

Perhaps this enigmatic remark about “‘sober second thought” is a clue to Poe's suspicion of the significance of the poem to him personally. What Poe seems to be alluding to is a manuscript change or an alternative last line that “Kate Carol” left to the option of the editor. As [page 175:] editor, Poe chose not the original but the “‘sober second thought”’ as being more appropriate. All this suggests that “The Rivulet's Dream” was accompanied by a note when it arrived at the office of the Broadway Journal and that this note gave the editor more clues to the identity of “Kate Carol” and the significance of her poem than he passed on to his readers.

The other poem of Mrs. Osgood's in the Broadway Journal for April 5 is “So Let It be, To ——.” Although signed “Violet Vane,” the poem is the work of Mrs. Osgood and appears in the 1850 edition of her poetry.(3) “So Let It Be” contains an allusion to “every memory of the past,” a fact out of keeping with the several weeks Mrs. Osgood then had known Poe; nevertheless, the poem is very likely a part of the literary courtship. Here Mrs. Osgood treats of a romantic triangle, presumably the one created by Virginia, Poe, and herself. Posing as the aggrieved party, she takes Poe to task for neglecting her in favor of Virginia:

Then casting Poe as the sun, Virginia as a satelite (“star” which reflects light), and herself characteristically as a withering wild flower, she suggests that Virginia would not begrudge her one ray of Poe's affection:

The poem concludes on a note of transparent stoicism:

The next issue of the Broadway Journal, April 12, carried no response from Poe, but it did carry two more poems by Mrs. Osgood. One of them, entitled “Spring,” is signed with Mrs. Osgood's pseudonym “Violet Vane. “(5) Violet complains of her wronged and broken heart, but the complaint is so utterly conventional that only its appearance during the period of the courtship would justify assigning Poe as its inspiration. The other poem, “Love's Reply,” signed Frances S. Osgood, is a more likely candidate. It tells “a quaint [page 177:] and simple story” about “three graceful girls”: Julie, Georgine, and especially Kate,

Before going abroad, the narrator asked each of the girls from what place he should address his letter to her. Julie chose Venice, Georgine “some proud palace,”

Kate, of course, could be “Kate Carol” or Frances Sargent Osgood. The description of Kate as a “bashful flower” fits Mrs. Osgood's image of herself, i.e., the withering “wildflower” of “So Let It Be.” If Poe was on the alert for a message, even a thinly veiled one, he might have read into “Love's Reply” Mrs. Osgood's plea that he “write from your heart to me!” Poe did respond two weeks later in the Broadway Journal; April 26, with “To F —.” Although probably written from Poe's heart as Mrs. Osgood requested, it was originally addressed to another heart ten years earlier.

As “Clarice” Mrs. Osgood contributed “To Lenore” to the Broadway Journal for May 31: [page 178:]

This poem is hardly worth quoting except that James H. Whitty numbers it among those of the literary courtship series.(8) This is doubtful. Although Mrs. Osgood might have conceived of herself as “fragile and fair as the delicate chalices,” there is no reason to believe that in the character of Lenore can be read the “pure heart” of the poetess “poisoned” by the “wild Passion” of a love for Poe. There is even a small shred of evidence that “To Lenore” antedates Poe's first meeting with Mrs. Osgood: this is the fifth poem she published in the Broadway Journal after March of 1845; yet it is the only one reprinted in the 1846 edition of her poems (p. 136). Since this edition was released early enough for Poe to publish a review of it in December of 1845,(9) it is possible that the poems it contains, including “To Lenore,” were composed before Poe and Mrs. Osgood met in March.

Much more likely a part of the courtship series is “Slander,” a poem published the Broadway Journal on August 30 over Mrs. Os-good's name. It is a pathetic narrative about the lethal effect of [page 179:] gossip upon a fragile human heart:

As she often does in other poems, Mrs. Osgood repeats herself in the terms of an image:

There is just the slim possibility that “the rivulet lone and lowly,” “the wild-flower withering fast away,” the “bright, yet bashful flower” intended herself to be this “guileless girl so pure and true” who has been wounded by the gossip that was circulating about her association with Poe. More likely, however, Mrs. Osgood intended not herself but Virginia Poe in this poem. She had befriended Virginia, and probably composed the poem either out of a genuine fear of the threat that gossip was posing to Virginia's peace of mind or out of the realization that Virginia's apparently compromised situation could be exploited in sentimental verse.

Perhaps it would be unjust to accuse Mrs. Osgood of opportunism in her poem “Slander” if she had not published in the Broadway Journal for the following week, September 6, a poem calculated to tease the gossips into a frenzy rather than to silence them. The Poem is entitled “Echo-Song”:

If the readers of this coy pronouncement had any doubt about the person to whom Mrs. Osgood is alluding, the quotation “wildly well” would have identified the author of “Israfel.” A week later, September 13, Poe responded to “Echo-Song” with his “To F—s S. O——d,” another relic from a romance of a decade earlier.

Two months elapsed before the Broadway Journal carried more of Mrs. Osgood's poetry. On November 22 and 29 poems, each entitled “To —,” appeared over her name. The first of these, an utterly conventional poem, is a defence against the charge of flirting. In addition to the fact that it was carried by the Broadway Journal while the courtship was in progress, this poem can be identified as addressed to Poe because Mrs. Osgood applies to herself and Poe the same star-wave imagery she used in “The Rivulet's Dream” of April 5:

The “To —” of November 29 is unmistakably addressed to Poe. It is the only one of Mrs. Osgood's poems in the series that is critical in nature. Here she recognizes Poe as an inspired poet whose song blends Nature and Art into Beauty. The poem bears a caption from “Israfel”:

The last of Mrs. Osgood's contributions to the Broadway Journal that can be considered as having been addressed to Poe is “A Shipwreck,” appearing on December 13. As its title suggests, this poem announces that Mrs. Osgood's relations with Poe had entered troubled waters:

Sidney P. Moss argues convincingly that Mrs. Elizabeth Ellet was the “prouder prize” for which Mrs. Osgood felt that Poe was forsaking her.(15) An unscrupulous and vindictive interloper, Mrs. Ellet evidently sought to usurp Mrs. Osgood's role in the literary courtship. According to Professor Moss, she underminded Mrs. Osgood's position by spreading malicious gossip; perhaps she even sent scurrilous letters anonymously to Virginia. More openly, Mrs. Ellet addressed a coy missive to Poe which he published in his Broadway Journal on December 13.(16) That Mrs. Osgood was alarmed by. Mrs. Ellet's machinations is recorded in her poem “To —’The Lady Geraldine,’ ” printed in the Broadway Journal for December 20.(17) As Professor Moss points out, the title is an allusion to the diabolic lady in Coleridge's “Christabel” who treacherously presents herself as a friend to the innocent heroine. “To —’The [page 184:] Lady Geraldine’” is Mrs. Osgood's last contribution to the Broadway Journal, and it is addressed to Mrs. Ellet rather than to Poe. Poe brought the courtship series to a close with “A Valentine,” an acrostic marked by its cleverness rather than by its depth of feeling. “A Valentine” was first read at a soiree on February 14, 1846, and then published in the New York Evening Mirror later that month, Poe's Broadway Journal having folded in the meantime.(18)

Of the eleven poems Mrs. Osgood published into the Broadway Journal after March of 1845, one was addressed to Mrs. Ellet, two have Poe, appear to have no connection with Poe, and eight are at least candidates for the courtship series. That Mrs. Osgood seems to have contributed more original poems to the exchange than Poe did testifies either to the prolixity of her sentimentalism or to the fact that she was more eager than Poe to exploit the potentialities of such a popular enterprise. It was indeed fortuitous that such a sensational series should occur while Mrs. Osgood's publisher was preparing to release the 1846 edition of her poems.(19)