Text: James L. Onderdonk, “Edgar Allan Poe and the Brownings,” The Dial (Chicago, IL), June 16, 1893, pp. 353-355

[page 353:]

Among the more highly-prized books in my library is an English reprint of Edgar A. Poe's poems, formerly belonging to Robert Browning. It is the edition published by the distinguished critic James Hannay, at London in 1852. Mr. Hannay's sketch of the poet is somewhat confused as to geography and dates. He assures us that Poe was “a native of Virginia,” adding that he was “born at Baltimore in 1811.” Geographical accuracy in American matters has never been a characteristic of English critics. Though Poe was not born in Baltimore, or in 1811, but in Boston in 1809, the biographical misstatement based upon Griswold is pardonable. Not the least interesting thing in Mr. Hannay's introductory notice is the prediction that Poe's poems will be received by his English admirers with “three times three.” Whatever may be said of these melodious messages from “night's Plutonian shore,” they are hardly the kind to which we should expect to see extended a boisterous welcome of triple cheers. Such hilarity predicated upon these lyrics of death and ruin is about as congruous as the proverbial “savage turtle-dove.”

What renders this particular copy of exceptional value, however, is a note on one of the fly-leaves in Mr. Browning's own handwriting: “Given to Mrs. Benzon, — partly on account of the poetry, partly on that of the dedication at page 33, — [page 354:] with all affectionate wishes of Robert Browning. March 7, ‘67.” The dedication referred to, it is needless to say, is the one prefixed to all English reprints of Poe's poetry, but strangely enough omitted from most American editions: “To the noblest of her Sex, — To the Author of The Drama of Exile,’ — To Miss Elizabeth Barret Barret, of England, I dedicate this volume, with the most enthusiastic admiration and with the most sincere esteem. E. A. P.”

Mr. Browning must certainly have long been accustomed to hear sounded extravagant praises of his wife's genius. It could not therefore have been the adulatory tone of Poe's dedication that commended itself so much as the evidence that Mrs. Browning's talents were so fully appreciated by a kindred spirit beyond the sea. That there was a kinship of genius between the English priestess of song and the American minstrel of despair is apparent, though doubtless more than counter balanced by the points of difference.

Poe was one of the first to appreciate the poetry of Mrs. Browning, then Miss Barrett. And Miss Barrett and her future husband were among the first English writers to detect the merits of Poe's melancholy verse. Poe's latest biographer, Mr. George E. Woodberry, has unearthed from copies of the New York “Evening Mirror” of October and December, 1844, these two notices of Miss Barrett, evidently from Poe himself: “Miss Barrett is worth a dozen of Tennyson and six of Motherwell equal perhaps in original genius to Keats and Shelley,” and “We do not believe there is a poetical soul embodied in this world that as a centre of thought — sees further toward the periphery permitted to angels, than Miss Barrett.” In the first number of the “ Broadway Journal” (Jan. 4, 1845), of which he shortly afterward became editor, Poe began his rather lengthy review of Mrs. Browning's works. It is interesting to note that many of the features that he picks out for praise or censure in Miss Barrett's poems may be parallelled in his own verse. He finds special fault with her affectations of phraseology, though himself guilty of such archaisms and absurdities of expression as “red levin,” “Runic rhymes,” “immemorial year,” and

He objects to the inadmissible rhymes and faulty rhythm which disfigure nearly every page of her poetry. Certainly the opening lines of “The Drama of Exile” —

though bad enough, are no worse than Poe's

and other instances easily cited. He is unsparing in his criticism of the blunders made by Miss Barrett, though in the same article he has deliberately recorded his ignorance of the authorship of “Œdipus at Colonus” in this remarkable sentence: “Although Æschylus might have done service as ‘a model’ to either Euripides or Sophocles, yet were Sophocles and Euripides in London to-day, they would, perhaps, while granting a certain formless and shadowy grandeur, indulge a quiet smile at the shallowness and uncouthness of that Art which, in the old ampitheatres, had beguiled them into applause of the Œdipus at Colonos.” It is a significant commentary on the condition of American scholarship in the first half of this century that Poe passed for a learned man. One enthusiastic biographer gravely assures us “Edgar Poe was, perhaps, the most scholarly writer our country has ever produced. His acquaintance with classical literature was thorough.” Mrs. Browning was evidently more correct when she wrote that Mr. Poe “sits somewhat loosely on his classics,” — a figure more apt than poetic. Mr. Woodberry was, we believe, the first biographer to expose the incorrectness of the oft-quoted sentence appended as a note to the exquisite lyric “Israfel.”

It is not surprising that Poe found much to admire in Miss Barrett's “The House of Clouds,” “The Lost Bower,” and “The Lay of the Brown Rosary.” They were themes upon which Poe's own genius might have exercised itself. Among the longer poems, he awards the palm of merit to “Lady Geraldine's Courtship,” “Aurora Leigh,” it will be remembered, was not yet written. The influence of “Lady Geraldine” on the American writer was decisive. This is manifest at once in the familiar parallellism between Poe's

and Mrs. Browning's

Poe's English biographer, Mr. Ingram, is doubtless correct in questioning the accuracy of the statement, made to Robert Browning by Buchanan Read, that Poe had admitted to him that the suggestion of “The Raven” lay wholly in the line just quoted from “Lady Geraldine.” It does not, however, imply a rejection of Poe's own account of the genesis of his most popular poem, if we fancy its foreshadowings may be detected in the writings of Mrs. Browning, Charles Dickens, and Albert Pike. For reasons not necessary to be repeated here, aside from those adduced by Mr. Ingram, the argument as to the indebtedness of Poe to Pike's “Isadore” seems well founded. But the influence of Mrs. Browning was far more subtle than that of Mr. Pike. In his essay on Mrs. Browning, Poe refers to the obtuseness of a writer in “Blackwood” in taking exception to the second line in the following stanza from “Lady Geraldine,” — [page 355:]

and makes the sweeping assertion: “We cannot refrain from expressing our conviction that from the entire range of poetical literature there shall not, in a century, be produced a more sonorous, a more vigorous verse, a juster, a nobler, a more ideal, a more magnificent image — than this very image, in this very verse, which the most noted magazine of Europe has so especially and so contemptuously condemned.” The fierceness of Poe's vindication will perhaps be the better appreciated when we discern an echo of these very lines in

Other passages from “Lady Geraldine” might be quoted to show the impression that it unquestionably made upon the mind of our greatest lyric poet. For instance, —

In view of these and other similarities, it is edifying indeed to hear Mr. Poe characterize “Lady Geraldine,” with all its beauty, depth, and passion, as a palpable imitation” of “Locksley Hall,” though surpassing Tennyson's poem “in plot, or rather in thesis, as much as it falls below it in artistical management and a certain calm energy.”

“The Raven” created almost as great a sensation in England as in America. Miss Barrett refers to the “fit horror” that it produced in that country, adding, “Our great poet Mr. Browning, author of Paracelsus,’ etc., is enthusiastic in his admiration of the rhythm.” This enthusiasm evidently did not wane with age or more extended knowledge of the American poet. More than twenty years later, as the little note referred to near the beginning of this article testifies, the volume containing “Lenore” and “To Annie” still commended itself to the author of “Evelyn Hope” and “Heap Cassia, Sandalbuds and Stripes,” partly on account of the poetry, partly on that of the dedication.

JAMES L. ONDERDONK.