Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 088: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Mar. 26, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 266-267 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 266, continued:]

88. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 208

My dear Mr. Ingram,

Your last letter was dated January 29! I dread to think what may have happened in so long an interval. You spoke of leaving England on a government tour to Ireland & Scotland. I hope you are well & that everything has prospered with you during this long silence. My last letter was mailed to you Feb. 16th [Mar. 9]. Since then I have suffered [page 267:] unremitting pains in my head & eyes. The two last months have been fearful. Such weather was never known before.

Every week I have tried to write to you — tried in vain — Mr. Harris I saw nearly a fortnight ago after a long interval. He told me he had written to you & had sent some books for you to his bookbinder in London. He directed his letter to Howard House instead of the address you last sent me. I hope it reached you. I confidently expected a letter from you today, & am so disappointed. It may come this evening.

Mr. Bartlett brought me the Athenaeum containing an admirable notice of your book, and I had from the Prov. Library the Examiner of Jan. 27, I think, containing Mr. Gosse's article on the poems. I think his comments on “Ulalume” were rather verdant, & does he not know that “Astarte's bediamonded crescent” was the crescent of Venus, the morning star, seen rising through the constellation Denebola! He would appreciate the poem better if he knew the weird symbolism of every line & phrase it contains. I was a good deal stirred by his presumptuous criticism.

I have not yet seen the International containing your article, although the book agents here promised to send for it. I have been too ill to attend to anything myself, but I must not say another word now, only to give you my heart's blessing & say goodbye.

Have you seen Swinburne's Bothwell?(1) It is highly praised by Stedman in the March number of Scribner's Monthly. Do you ever see that periodical?

Ever faithfully & affectionately your friend,

You see how unfitted I am for writing.

Can you tell me anything of Swinburne's Under the Microscope?(2)

 

1. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Bothwell: A Tragedy (London: Chatto & Windus, 1874).

2. Algernon Charles Swinburne, Under the Microscope (London: D. White, 1872).