Edgar Allan Poe

“ An American journalist in want of a subject to eke out the scanty interest of his columns appears to revert to Poe and his works as natural prey: he has only to devise a paragraph—the more absurd and palpably false the better for his purpose—about how The Raven was written, or by whom it was written other than Poe, to draw attention to his paper and to get his fabrication copied into the journals of every town in the United States. ”

“ Cela, je m'assis occupé à le conjecturer, mais n'adressant pas une syllabe à l'oiseau dont les yeux de feu brûlaient, maintenant, au fond de mon sein; cela et plus encore, je m'assis pour le deviner, ma tête reposant à l'aise sur la housse de velours des coussins que dévorait la lumière de la lampe, housse violette de velours dévoré par la lumière de la lampe qu'Elle ne pressera plus, ah! jamais plus. ”

“ By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."
Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."
XVII.
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting—97
"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door! ”

“ Another class of forgeries connected with the would-be imitators of Edgar Poe's style is known as the "Spiritual Poems." These so-called "poems" are wild rhapsodical productions supposed to be dictated by the spirits of departed genius to earthly survivors: they have always to be given through the medium of a mortal, and although generally endowed with rhyme are almost always devoid of reason. ”

“ Our little ones inquire of me, where is their mother gone,—
What answer can I make to them, except with tears alone;
For if I say, to Heaven—then the poor things wish to learn,
How far is it, and where, and when their mother will return. ”

“ Thou art lost to me forever, Isadore.
The vines and flowers we planted, love, I tend with anxious care,
And yet they droop and fade away, as tho' they wanted air;
They cannot live without thine eyes, to glad them with their light,
Since thy hands ceased to train them, love, they cannot grow aright.
Thou art lost to them forever, Isadore. ”

“ O foreign writer is so popular, and has been so thoroughly acclimatised in France, as Edgar Poe. This popularity and power is largely due to the translations and influence of Charles Baudelaire who has made his transatlantic idol a veritable French classic. Edgar Poe's influence upon literature, declares de Banville, is ceaseless and spreading, and as powerful as that of Balzac. ”

“ Liess sonst keinen Laut vernehmen, leblos sass er wie ein Schemen,
Bis ich leise murmelnd sagte: "Morgen, sicher, flieht auch er,
Wie die Freunde mich verliessen, wie die Hoffnung floh vorher!"—
Doch da sprach er: "Nimmermehr!"—
Nun die Stille war gebrochen durch dies Wort so klug gesprochen,
"Ohne Zweifel," sagt' ich, "blieb es übrig ihm aus alter Lehr',
Einst gehört von einem Meister, den des Unheils böse Geister
Hart und härter stets bedrängten, bis sein Lied von Klagen schwer,
Bis das Grablied seiner Hoffnung, nur von düstrer Klage schwer ”

“ Und der Rabe, ohne Regen, ohn' ein Glied nur zu bewegen,
Hockt auf Pallas' bleicher Büste, starr und schweigend wie vorher;
Seiner Dämonaugen Funken leuchten wie in Traum versunken,
Seinen Schatten wirft die Lampe schwarz und lang ins Zimmer her,
Und die Seele kann dem Schatten, der am Boden schwankt umher,
Nicht entfliehen—nimmermehr!—
Betty Jacobson. ”

“ The Gazelle might almost be regarded as a response to the elder poet's generous notice. Poe himself observes, that this parody "although professedly an imitation, has a very great deal of original power," and he published it in the New York Evening Mirror (April 29th, 1845) , with the remark that "the following, from our new-found boy poet of fifteen years of age, shows a most happy faculty of imitation"—
Another of the earliest parodies on The Raven deserves allusion as having, like the preceding, received recognition at the hands of Poe himself. ”

“ The German language has a capability of reproducing English thought possessed by no other national speech. Even poetry may be transferred from the one tongue to the other without, in many cases, any very great loss of beauty or power. The German language is richer in rhymes than the English, and in it finer shades of thought may be expressed ”

“ It has been seen how rapidly The Raven winged its way across the Atlantic. The ominous bird had not long settled on the English shores ere its wonderful music had penetrated into every literary home. As a natural consequence of its weird power and artificial composition it was speedily imitated: one of the first English parodies was contributed by Robert Brough, to Cruikshank's Comic Almanack for 1853, and was republished in the Piccadilly Annual in 1870. ”

“ Sitzt mit geisterhaftem Munkeln, seine Feueraugen funkeln
Gar dämonisch aus dem dunkeln, düstern Schatten um ihn her;
Und mein Geist wird aus dem Schatten, den er breitet um mich her,
Sich erheben—nimmermehr. ”

“ Für den Kummer um Lenore, war mein Herz zu trüb und schwer;
Um Lenoren, die nur Engel droben nennen, licht und hehr!—
Ach, hier nennt sie Niemand mehr!
Und das leise Rascheln, Rauschen, wie von seidnen Vorhangs Bauschen,
Füllte mich mit Angst und Grauen, das ich nie gekannt bisher.
Deutlich fühlt' mein Herz ich schlagen, musste zu mir selber sagen:
"Jemand kommt mich zu besuchen, tappt nun an der Thür umher—
Noch ein später Gas will Einlass, suchend tappt er hin und her;
Nur ein später Gast, was mehr?"—
Als besiegt des Herzens Zagen, fing ich deutlich an zu fragen ”

“ But you know a person very often depreciates his own talents, and he even went so far as to suggest that in this instance, or in any future pieces he might contribute, I should revise and print them in my own name to insure their circulation. ”

“ J. W. Scott, D.D., and is stated to have been written upon his wife's death. It appeared first in 1874, and is in many lines, more a repetition than a parody of The Raven: the first three, the fourteenth and the last stanzas will suffice to show the style of the piece:—
Some lines on "The Death of Edgar Poe," written by Sarah J. Bolton for the Poe Memorial Committee, are composed in imitation of The Raven, and are as follows:
Numberless other parodies, more or less smart or inane, as the case may be, have appeared, and continue to appear, in American, British, and Colonial publications. ”

“ The above poor imitation of Poe's poetic chef d'œuvre circulated through the United States for some time as the prototype of The Raven, and although the whole affair was treated as a fabrication by all persons capable of judging, it was received by a number of persons, according to the allegation of its avowed concocter, as the genuine production of Poe. ”

“ S barna szárnya meg se lendül, mind csak ott ül, mind csak fent ül,
Akármerre fordulok, csak szemben ül mindig velem,
Szemei meredt világa, mint kisértet rémes árnya,
S körülötte a bús lámpa fénye reszket kétesen,
S lelkem—ah! ”

“ Tartarus seu te profundus, seu procella hue egerit,
Tu, peregrinans, et audax, hanc malam visens domum,
Quam colet ferox Erinnys—dic mihi, dic, obsecro,
Num levamen sit doloris, quern gero—dic, obsecro! ”

“ Félénk lépés zaja dobban,—dobban halkan, csöndesen,
"Látogató—gondolám—ki ajtómhoz jött csöndesen,
Az lesz, egyéb Semmisemi.
Ah! oly jól emlékszem még én:—késö volt, december végén,
Minden üszök hamvig égvén árnya rezgett rémesen. ”

“ Et micans alis, verenda forma, corvus insilit.
Blandiens haud commoratus, quam cellerrime viam;
Fecit, et gravis, superbus, constitit super fores—
In caput divæ Minervæ collorans se sculptile
Sedit, motus haud dein amplius. ”

“ Hier, ach, nennt kein wort sie mehr!
* * * * *
V.
Ängstlich in das Dunkel starrend blieb ich stehn, verwundert, harrend
Träume träumend, die Kein armer Erdensohn geträumt vorher.
Doch nur von des Herzens Pochen ward die Stille unterbrochen,
Und als ein' ges Wort gesprochen ward: "Lenore?" kummerschwer,
Selber sprach ich's, und: "Lenore!" trug das Echo zu mir her,—
Nur dies Wort, und sonst nichts mehr.
* * * * *
XIII.
Und der Rabe, schwartz and dunkel, sitzt mit krächzendem Gemunkel
Noch auf meiner Pallasbüste ob der Thür bedeutungschwer. ”

“ Stern Despair returned, instead of the sweet Hope he dared adjure,
That sad answer, Nevermore.
Line 80. Swung by angels whose faint foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
Line 84. Let me quaff, &c.
Line 105. Demons for demon's. ”