• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

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.”

Abijah M. Ide, Jr. to Edgar Allan Poe — February 16, 1845

South Attleborough Mass. Feb. 16, 1845

My Dear Sir,

I find myself under the necessity of asking you to be so good as to return me the copy of “Bunker’s Hill” which I sent you. I have, accidentally, destroyed one leaf of the copy which I retained; or I would not trouble you to do this.

I am very thankful to you for the manner in which you wrote to me of my Poem; and feel flattered by your opinion of its general merits. I feel your suggestions to be most appropriate; but I wish you had given your reason to thinking the last stanza should be omitted. I do not know as I shall offer the poem to Graham; though I should prefer its publication in his magazine, to any other; but I have some little acquaintance with the “Knickerbocker,” and may send it there, if anywhere. I am glad to learn that you have established yourself in New York; because I have learned to regard it as producing a better order of literature, than Philadelphia, and also, that in the former city, I may the more likely have the good fortune to meet you at some future time. I learn by a friend that you are connected with a publication called the “Broadway Journal” which I have never seen. Your new Magazine I presume is to be of a similar character; — a fearless critical monthly.

I shall regard your advice, by following it; and revise the poem (”Bunker Hill”) as carefully as I may be able. I do not hope to make it a faultless production, but I shall endeavor to make its merits as great as my simple ability can; and if it serves to bring its author’s name into favorable notice I shall be satisfied.

I wish when you write me (or return to the poem) you would send by “Hales express,” and direct to Pawtucket R. I. — from which place I can readily obtain my letters: I am obliged to be as economical as possible in the matter of Postages.

Very Truly

Your (friend)

[A. M. Ide]

(signature cut off)

Edgar A. Poe Esq.

New York

P. S. Since writing to you last, I have met with the Feb. no. of Graham’s, and tho’ my praise may be little worth to you, I cannot refrain from saying that I have been exceedingly pleased with the “Haunted Palace,” quoted in Mr. Lowell’s article, I had never met with it before.