Notes:

Though published two years after it appeared in the Union Magazine of Literature and Art (March, 1848), this version likely is taken from the original manuscript. Griswold knew Mrs. Lewis quite well and as such almost certainly had access it.

Griswold scrawled a note on the bottom, given the manuscript to Richard Henry Stoddard:

The only textual difference between the manuscript and Griswold's printing is that Griswold uses the published title of “An Enigma” rather than the manuscript title of “Sonnet.” This variant is not recorded by Mabbott, who never saw the manuscript. Letters on the manuscript that comprise the acrostic are underined lightly in pencil.

The hidden name in this poem is that of Sarah Anna Lewis. It is spelled with one letter on each line, the first letter of the first line “S”, the second letter of the second line “a”, the third letter of the third line “r”, etc. In the following copy of the text, punctuation and spaces have been removed and the relevant letters marked in red to make the matter clear:

The term “tuckermanities” refers to Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813-1871), who wrote light sonnets for the Democratic Review in 1845. In the only version printed during Poe's lifetime, “tuckermanities” was given as “Petrarchanities.” Mabbott presumed even in the absence of the manuscript that the change was made by Poe, now confirmed by the rediscovery of the manuscript, which had been in Griwsold's possession. Poe had long disliked Tuckerman, whom he called “the king of the Quietists.”