EDGAR ALLAN POE TO ABIJAH M. IDE, JR. — JANUARY 25, 1845
My Dear Sir,
Your letter of the 12fth reached me, in this city, only a few days ago. I am now living here.
I read the poem with great interest, and think it by much the best I have seen from your pen. Absolutely, also, I think it a remarkably fine poem. Some of the lines are, in all respects, admirable. For example —
Midnight in the silent city, midnight on the throbbing sea —
And the soft and silvery star-light fills the overhanging sky —
From the land beyond the ocean, on the rolling billows borne,
Comes the sunlight of the morning to the weary and the worn —
With the tribute and the treasure of the islands and the seas.
These are fine verses, independently of thought. Some of them are defective — for instance:
With foul shame to the weak-hearted, and the vanity of fear.
Your rhythm is trochaic — that is to say, composed of 2-syllable feet, in which the first is long, the second short. With and the, therefore are rhythmically long syllables, while naturally they are short. This contradiction should never exist. It exists in the line beginning — “With the tribute and the” &c. but not so glaringly. I am glad to see that you have altered “Oe’r the wild loud” into “Over the loud,” for although the is improperly made long, you avoid the contraction of over. Upon the whole, you have a vivid conception of rhythm and you have no idea how much I mean in saying (Over that.
I may be in error, but I do not believe you will be able to sell the poem anywhere. Its merits are far higher than those of many poems that are sold for high prices; but what is paid for is the name of the poet. You are yet young as well in letters as in years. By and bye you may be able to make your own terms.
If any one will pay you for it, it will be Graham.
I would counsel you, however, to revise the whole carefully. “To old Bunker” is in bad taste. “E’en to build up,” etc. is feeble — the contraction is bad. What do you mean by “like the river of a well”? — or by “the deepest scene of carnage”? You do not intend the scene to be deep but the carnage. Deep, at best, is not the right epithet. The whole of the last stanza, I think, should be omitted, although its 3d line is excellent.
Very truly your friend,
Edgar A. Poe
A. M. Ide Jr
P. S. I shall very soon establish a Magazine in this city — “The Stylus”.
N. B. “To their strong heart’s muffled beating” will be immediately condemned as a plagiarism, from Longfellow’s
“Our hearts like muffled drums are beating.”