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[page 99, column 6, continued:]
Did Poe Write It?
What seem to be the facts about little poem a entitled “Alone” and credited to Edgar Allan Poe?
JAMAICA READER.
The authenticity of the little poem is to say the least doubtful. It was published in Scribner's Magazine in September, 1875, with Poe's name attached, and March 17, 1829. Poe died in 1849. The editor of Poe's complete works did not include the poem amongst Poe's undisputed works, but placed it in an appendix with a note stating that he had a facsimile of the poem in his possession for some time and had solicited and hunted for proof of its authenticity, but had found none. He said that the date line and heading were of recent addition and that the body of the poem differed from Poe's. While not. placing the poem among Poe's undisputed works, the editor said: “The lines, however, if not by Poe, are the most successful imitation of his early mannerism yet made public, and are not unworthy of the parentage claimed for them.” The lines were said to have been written in the album of a Baltimore lady. Our readers might like to read the poem and we print it below:
ALONE
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone
And all I loved — I loved alone
Then — in my childhood. in the dawn
Of a most stormy life — was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still
From the torrent or the fountain
From the red cliff of the mountain
From the sun that round me rolled:
In Its autumn tint of gold
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by
From the thunder and the storm
And the cloud that took the form
When the rest of heaven was blue,
Of a demon in my view.
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Notes:
The poem “Alone,” under that title, is now accepted as being by Poe, although the title was assigned by E. L. Didier and the nature of its first publication, as mentioned in 1875, caused much unneeded suspicion. The edition to which this note refers was the one by J. H. Ingram, not the most current one as of 1922. The Jamaica of the signature is no doubt Jamaica in New York rather than the more exotic location.
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[S:0 - BDE, 1922] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Did Poe Write It? (Williams)