Edgar Allan Poe — “Bridal Ballad”

Reading copy:

• “Bridal Ballad” — reading copy

Manuscripts and Authorized Printings:

• Text-01 — “[Ballad]” — 1836 — [There are no known draft manuscripts or scratch notes reflecting the original effort of composition. Mabbott (1:304-305) does not specifically suggest a date of composition, but offers two possible sources. The first was a poem printed in the SLM for August 1835, and the second a poem that Poe reviews in the SLM for July 1836. If we accept these as likely sources, a composition date of about September 1836 may be assumed.]
• Text-02 — “Ballad” — 1836-37
  • Text-02a — “Ballad” — late 1836 — [Speculated faircopy manuscript that Poe prepared for publication. This manuscript has not survived, but this version is presumably recorded in Text-02b.]
  • Text-02b — “Ballad” — January 1837 — Southern Literary Messenger — (Mabbott text A — This is Mabbott's copy-text for this early version) — [The Poe Log (p. 241) states that the January 1837 issue was available after January 26, 1837.]
• Text-03 — “Ballad” — 1841
  • Text-03a — “Ballad” — about July 1841 — [Speculated new manuscript, with several significant changes. Poe wrote L. J. Cist on September 18, 1841 that “Not long ago wishing to procure a printed copy of a poem of my own called ‘A Ballad’, and originally published in the ‘S. L. Mess.’ I handed it to Mr P. for re-publication in the ‘Post’ with the heading ‘From the South. L. Messenger’,” although the editor, C. J. Peterson, did not honor the attribution of the earlier printing. This manuscript has apparently not surived, but is presumably recorded in Text-03b.]
  • Text-03b — “Ballad” — July 31, 1841 — Saturday Evening Post — (Mabbott text B)
• Text-04 — “Song of the Newly-Wedded” — 1844
  • Text-04a — “Song of the Newly-Wedded” — before March 4, 1843 — [Speculated clipping of the printing from the Southern Literary Messenger, text-02b, with a new title, and one change already incorporated in Text-03b. It was prepared as part of the material for his biography in the Saturday Museum, but added only to the reprinted version of that article. This clipping has apparently not surived, but is presumably recorded in Text-04b.]
  • Text-04b — “Song of the Newly-Wedded” — March 4, 1843 — Saturday Museum — (Mabbott text C) — [The poem is part of a biographical article about Poe — this one poem does not appear in the February 25, 1843 printing.]
• Text-05 — “Bridal Ballad” — 1845
  • Text-05a — “Bridal Ballad” — before August 2, 1845 — [This entry is a speculated copy of the Saturday Museum with a change of the title.]
  • Text-05b — “Bridal Ballad” — August 2, 1845 — Broadway Journal — (Mabbott text D)
• Text-06 — “Bridal Ballad” — 1845
  • Text-06a — “Bridal Ballad” — about September 1845 — [This entry is a speculated copy of the Broadway Journal with a minor change marked by Poe in anticipation of the RAOP. As was a common practicse, this copy was presumably destroyed as part of the typesetting process, but the text is almost certainly reflected in Text-06b.]
  • Text-06b — “Bridal Ballad” — 1845 — RAOP — (Mabbott text E) — [Mabbott (1942, p. ix) asserts that “Copy probably went to the printers about the first of October.” Mabbott (1942, p. xi) further notes that “a complete copy was deposited for copyright” on November 12, 1845, and that “The actual date of publication was November 19, 1845.” For Griswold's 1850 reprint of this text, see under reprints, below.]
• Text-07 — “Bridal Ballad” — 1849 — manuscript revisions in J. Lorimer Graham copy of RAOP — (Mabbott Text F — This is Mabbott's copy-text for the final version)

Reprints:

• “Ballad” — early 1837 — unidentified newspaper, probably Philadelphia or Pittsburgh (a clipping was saved in a scrapbook by Mrs. E. B. Henderson, who may have lived in or near New Castle, Pennsylvania. Another clipping is of “Rustic Courtship,” reprinted from the Southern Literary Messenger for February 1836. The title and text of “Ballad” match that printed in the Messenger, except for the almost certainly erroneous omission of “now” at the end of the final line of the second stanza. The poem carries the byline “BY E. A. POE,” and probably acknowledged the source, although that has been cut away in the clipping as preserved.)
• “Ballad” — February 7, 1837 — New-York American (New York, NY), vol. XVIII, no. 1605, p. ?, middle of col. 3 (reprinted with Poe's name from the SLM. This newspaper was printed in various forms, often combining issues for different days, making the precise date of issue difficult to determine.)
• “Ballad” — April 2, 1838 — Georgia Mirror (Florence, GA), vol. I, no. 1, p. 1, col. 1 (reprinted with Poe's name from the SLM.) (Information for this entry was provided to the Poe Society by Ton Fafianie in an e-mail dated June 12, 2021.)
• “Bridal Ballad” — August 15, 1845 — Boston Post, p. 1 (reprinted with Poe's name from the Broadway Journal)  (This reprint noted by K. Ljungquist, p. 195n24.)
• “Bridal Ballard [[Ballad]]” — September 18, 1845 — Vermont Phoenix (Brattleboro, VT), p. 1, col. 1 (reprinted with Poe's name from the Broadway Journal)
• “Bridal Ballad” — May 2, 1846 — Family Herald: Useful Information and Amusement for the Million (London, UK), vol. III, no. 156, p. 817 (front page) (Poe is noted as the author)
• “Bridal Ballad” — about September 1849 — Richmond Examiner proof sheets — (the text given by Whitty matches Text 07 exactly. It may be surmised that the Examiner text was set from Poe's copy of RAOP. Strangely, Whitty does not list the J. L. Graham copy of RAOP in his versions of this poem, although he does include two references to this volume in the variants.)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1850 — WORKS — (Mabbott text G) — [Griswold reprints Text-06b, from the stereoplates, ignoring Poe's changes in Text-07.]
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1852 — Tales of Mystery and Imagination and Humour; and Poems, London: Henry Vizetelly (An undated edition appears about the same time, published by Charles H. Clark and Samuel Orchart Beeton, and their name appears as publisher for the second series), first series pp. 248-249. (with 1 woodcut illustration) (this poem was omitted in some later printings)
• “Bridal Ballad” — July 31, 1852 — Herts Guardian (Hertfordshire, England), p. 4, col. 1
• “Bridal Ballad” — May 13, 1872 — Orleans County Monitor (Barton, VT), vol. I, no. 19, p. 1, col. 2 (acknowledged as by “Edgar Allen [[Allan]] Poe.”)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1875 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol 3: Poems and Essays, ed. J. H. Ingram, Edinburgh, Adam and Charles Black (3:61)
• “Bridal Ballad” — July 13, 1888 — State Chronicle (Raleigh, NC), vol. XVIII, no. 23, p. 1, col. 6 (printed in an article questioning a possible plagiarism of Poe's poem by Amelie Rives (1865-1945) in her novel “The Quick or the Dead.”)
• “Bridal Ballad” — January 30, 1920 — Buffalo Commercial (Buffalo, NY), (no volume or issue number), p. 4, col. 4 (acknowledged as reprinted from The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, published by Charles Scribner's Sons)

Scholarly and Noteworthy Reprints:

• “Bridal Ballad” — 1894-1895 — The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 10: Poems, ed. E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, Chicago: Stone and Kimball (10:12-13, and pp. 159-162)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1902 — The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 7: Poems, ed. J. A. Harrison, New York: T. Y. Crowell (7:81-82, and 7:198-199)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1911 — The Complete Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. J. H. Whitty, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co. (pp. 15-16, and pp. 201-204)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1917 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Killis Campbell, Boston: Ginn and Company (pp. 100-102, and pp. 234-235)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1965 — The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe, ed. Floyd Stovall, Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia (pp. 85-86, and pp. 251-252)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1969 — The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe, vol. 1: Poems, ed. T. O. Mabbott, Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (1:304-310)  (Mabbott gives two texts)
• “Bridal Ballad” — 1984 — Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales, ed. Patrick F. Quinn (New York: Library of America) (pp. 74-75) (reprints the text from Stovall, 1965)

Instream Comparative and Study Texts:

• “Ballad” — Comparative Text (SLM and Saturday Evening Post)
• “Ballad” — Comparative Text (Saturday Evening Post and Saturday Museum)
• “Bridal Ballad” — Comparative Text (Saturday Museum and Broadway Journal)
• “Bridal Ballad” — Comparative Text (Broadway Journal and RAOP)
• “Bridal Ballad” — Study Text (RAOP-JLG)

Miscellaneous Texts and Related Items:

• None.

• Caputi, Anthony, “The Refrain in Poe's Poetry,” American Literature, May 1953, 25:169-178
• Heartman, Charles F. and James R. Canny, A Bibliography of First Printings of the Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, Hattiesburg, MS: The Book Farm, 1943.
• Ljungquist, Kent. P., “ ‘Valdemar’ and the ‘Frogpondians’: The Aftermath of Poe's Boston Lyceum Appearance,” in Emersonian Circles: Essays in Honor of Joel Myerson, ed. Wesley T. Mott, Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 1997, pp. 181-206.
• Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed., The Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe (Vol 1 Poems), Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1969.
• Savoye, Jeffrey A., “The Echo of Promises in Poe's ‘Bridal Ballad’,” Edgar Allan Poe Review, vol. 17, no. 2, Fall 2016, pp. 214-216