The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Edgar Allan Poe [1032]
to show that broken hearts and matters of that kind are improperly made the subject of poems. I refer to a chapter of the articles entitled "Marginalia," (p. —.) "Second," says Outis, "that lover longs for some hereafter communion with the bird." In my poem there is no expression of any such longing — the nearest approach to it is the triumphant consciousness which forms the thesis and staple of the whole. In Outis's poem the nearest approach to the "longing" is contained in the lover's request to the bird to repeat a strain that assures him (the lover,) that it (the bird,) has known the lost mistress. "Third — there is a bird," says Outis. So there is. Mine however is a raven, and we may take it for granted that Outis's is either a nightingale or a cockatoo. "Fourth, the bird is at the poet's window." As regards my poem, true; as regards Outis's, not: — the poet only requests the bird to come to the window. Fifth, the bird being at the poet's window, makes a noise." The fourth specification failing, the fifth, which depends upon it, as a matter of course fails too. "Sixth, making a noise attracts the attention of the poet." The fifth specification failing, the sixth, which depends upon it, fails, likewise, and as a matter of course, as before. "Seventh, [the poet] was half asleep, dozing, dreaming." False altogether: only my poet was "napping," and this in the commencement of the poem, which is occupied with realities and waking action. Outis's poet is fast asleep and dreams everything. "Eighth, the poet invites the bird to come in." Another palpable failure. Outis's poet indeed asked his bird in; but my raven walked in without any invitation. "Ninth — a confabulation ensues." As regards my poem, true; but there is not a word of any confabulation in Outis's. "Tenth — the bird is supposed to be a visitor from the land of spirits." As regards Outis's poem, this is true only if we give a wide interpretation to the phrase "realms of light." In my poem the bird is not only not from the world of spirits, but I have specifically conveyed the idea of his having escaped from "some unhappy master," of whom he had caught the word "nevermore" — in the concluding stanza, it is true, I suddenly convert him into an allegorical emblem or personification of Mournful Remembrance, out of the shadow of which the poet is "lifted nevermore." "Eleventh — allusion is made to the departed." Admitted. "Twelfth — intimation is given that the bird knew something of the departed." True as regards Outis's poem only. No such intimation is given in mine. "Thirteenth — that he knew her worth and loveliness." Again — true only as regards Outis's poem. It should be observed here that I have disproved the twelfth and thirteenth specifications purely for form's sake: — they are nothing more than disingenuous repetitions of the eleventh. The "allusion to the departed" is the "intimation," and the intimation is that "he knew her worth and loveliness." "Fourteenth — the bird seems willing to linger with the poet." True only as regards my poem — in Outis's (as quoted) there is nothing of the kind. "Fifteenth — there is a repetition, in the second and fourth lines, of a part, and that the emphatic part, of the first and third." What is here asserted is true only of the first stanza quoted by Outis, and of the commencement of the third. There is nothing of it in the second. In my poem there is nothing of it at all, with the exception of the repetition in the refrain, occurring at the fifth line of my stanza of six. I quote a stanza — by way of rendering everything perfectly intelligible, and affording Outis his much coveted "fair play":
"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting —
"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!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
Quoth the raven "Nevermore."
Sixteenth — concerns the rhythm. Outis's is iambic — mine