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Fordham, April 20, 1849.
My dear Willis: —
The poem which I enclose, and which I am so vain as to hope you will like, in some respects, has been just published in a paper for which sheer necessity compels me to write, now and then. It pays well as times go — but unquestionably it ought to pay ten prices; for whatever I send it I feel I am consigning to the tomb of the Capulets. The verses accompanying this, may I beg you to take out of the tomb, and bring them to light in the Home Journal? If you can oblige me so far as to copy them, I do not think it will be necessary to say “From the” that would be too bad; — and, perhaps, “From a late — paper,” would do.
I have not forgotten how a “good word in season” from you made “The Raven,” and made “Ulalume,” (which, by-the-way, people have done me the honor of attributing to you) — therefore I would ask you (if I dared,) to say something of these lines — if they please you.
Truly yours ever,
Edgar A. Poe.
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Notes:
The poem Poe enclosed was “For Annie,” which Willis printed in his Home Journal for April 28, 1849. The “paper for which sheer necessity comples me to write” was the Flag of Our Union.
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[S:0 - MS, 18xx] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Works - Letters - Poe to N. P. Willis (LTR310/RCL782)