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81. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 193
Jan. 7, 1875
My dear Mr. Ingram,
I sent you some hurried lines yesterday. Do not be troubled at my criticisms; they were only given as suggestions. I should like to know the author of the article entitled “Reminiscences” of Poe's life at Fordham. I vaguely remember having somewhere seen it, perhaps in the Home Journal. It seemed to me then a fancy sketch. Do you know its author? And can its statements be depended on? It seemed to me to infringe a little upon “that dignity that doth hedge” a poet, as well as a king. Nor can I believe some of its statements. That about the caged [page 246:] quail & the tortured or tormented bird, for instance, and the cat & the straw bed. I am very curious about the authorship of this sketch. Do tell me, if you know.(1) Did you write to Miss Blackwell? Mrs. Nichols may be able to tell you about Miss B. It was Mrs. N. who asked Mrs. Clemm to receive her for a few weeks as a boarder. If I had been quoting from the article I think I should have omitted the phrase “and her black dress though old and much worn looked really elegant on her.” The description of Poe is admirable, with the exception of the word “restless.” There was no restlessness either in movement or feature, as I knew him. There was often fervor & intensity, but always mingled with an almost supernatural calmness of eye & gesture. Like his handwriting, his manner seemed always self-controlled & self-poised, in strange contradiction to his disturbed & erratic career — always, with one exception. I will tell you about it someday. Stoddard's book you will have seen ere this reaches you. But why has he omitted the early stanzas to Helen? It is certainly not a “complete” edition of the poems. He says moreover in speaking of the publication of “The Bells” in Sartain's Mag., 1849 (October, I think), “About this time he wrote stanzas ‘For Annie’ & ‘Annabel Lee. — Now the stanzas “For Annie” were first published in a Boston paper in the early spring of 1849.(2) They were written after his return or during a visit to his friends in Lowell where he had again succumbed to the fatal temptation from which the Death Angel was so soon to deliver him, and where he was tenderly & kindly ministered to by the wife of his host.(3) This lady was the Annie of whose kindness to herself Mrs. Clemm spoke in one of the letters I sent you. What you tell me of Neilson Poe & of the letters written him by Mrs. Clemm greatly surprised & interested me. It would appear, then, that Mrs. Clemm was twice married if Virginia had a half-sister, or perhaps these half-sisters had the same father. I have heard that Mrs. Clemm's husband was once Mayor of Richmond, but I do not remember how I heard it.
The story of letters of “the literary lady” for which Griswold] offered $500, I fancy I can account for. It has been often said that Mrs. C[lemm] either carelessly or intentionally permitted a letter of Mrs. Osgood's to be seen by some visitor. Griswold, acting as the agent of Mrs. O[sgood], might have heard &, perhaps, doubted this story, & might have made some offer for the letter or letters on which this story was based. But “here's a coil” which I cannot attempt to unravel.
The enclosed printed parody on “The Bells” has been going the rounds of the papers &, I fancy, must be a fling at Stoddard's “flute.” The unpublished lines, perpetrated by an admirer of Poe's genius, certainly were so intended. I copy them for your amusement. And will write again by the next mail. Benedicte. [page 247:]
On a Grecian Flute
Lo, the fluter with his flute —
Grecian Flute!
How long the world has waited
For its tantalizing toot!
“Unheard melodies are sweetest,”*
Said the charming poet Keats;
But our pleasure is completest
When we hear them on the streets;
Or sounding loud & shrill
Through the homes of Murray Hill —
On the heights of Murray Hill
Loud & shrill,
Hear the flute, flute, flute,
Flute, flute, flute.
That wicked Broadway Journal
Whose Editor infernal
Let no trumpet but his own
Through the market place be blown —
Had the chief not been carousing —
Had the Raven not been drowsing,
The world had not been waiting,
Been waiting all in vain,
For that melancholy strain
Of the flute —
In anxious expectation for the tintinabulation
Of the flute.
* See “Lines on a Grecian Urn.”
1. The author of this article in the Sixpenny Magazine was Mrs. Mary Gove Nichols.
2. Flag of Our Union, Apr. 28, 1849.
3. Poe's host in Lowell was Charles B. Richmond (d. 1873), a well-to-do paper manufacturer and husband of Nancy Locke Heywood (1820-1898), who became Poe's adored “Annie.” After her husband's death, Mrs. Richmond had her name changed legally to Annie Richmond.
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Notes:
None.
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[S:0 - PHR, 1979] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - Bookshelf - Poe's Helen Remembers (J. C. Miller) (Entry 081)