Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1864-12-01
One Of p0e's Experiments ToWaa j 81 The Ra-



Ven.E
dACREADY, the ragedian, has !, entity trans
nitted a copy of hitherto VI. bIished po-
en- by EDGAR / Pos, to the Dndon Star.
He says of it:
II think the folio wing faota &c poem "a
copy Of which l enclose J, w:itteu b. the poet
whilst experimenting towards the production
Of that wonderful aud beautiful piece of
mechanism, (The Ra7en) may possibly inter
est your numerous readers. The Fire
Fiend,' (the title of the poem l enclose) Mr.
Poe considered incomplete, and threw it
aside in disgust Some months afterwards,
finding it amongst his papers, he sent it in a
letter TO i friend, labelled facetiously. TO
be read by freight at midnight, after thirty
drops of laudanum' l was Intimately ac-
qaainted with the mother in-law of Poe. and
have frequently conversed with her respect
ing The Raven, and she assured me that he
had the idea in his mind for some years, and
used frequently to repeat verses of it to her,
and ask her opinion of them frequently, max
ing alterations and Improvements according
to the mood he CHANGED to be in at the
time
The poem which Mr.. MACREADY transmitted
to the Morning Star is very long, and con-
tains much which is terrible, CHASTITY, and too
horrible for print. Its author probably
never designed that it should see the
light. We give below the best stanzas, and
the reader will not be slow to discover the
presence of that same weird, wonderfully mu
steal, sensuous harmony which has made this
singular and erratic genius the head Of a
distinct school of literature.
THE FIRE FIESD.-A NIGHTMARE.
In the deepest death of midnight, while the sad
and solemn swell
Still was floating, family echoed from the forest
chapel bell
Family falterngly floating DER the sable waves of
That were thro' the midnight rolling, chafed and
billowy with the tolng-
In my chamber L lay dreaming by the irelght's
ftfuI cleaning,
And my dreams were dreams forshadowed on
heart foredoomed to care.
" On the red hearth's reddest centre, from blazing
knot of oak,
Seemed to gbe and grin this phantom, when in
terror l awoke;
And my slumberous eyelids straining, as stagger-
ed to the floor;
Still in that dread vision seeming, turned my gaze
toward the cleaning
Hearth, and there God I saw it aud from out
its flaming Jaw it
spat ceaseless, seething, kissing, bubblng, CUR
Cling stream of gore!
pail of Fear,
1 lay, stricken, came hoarSe and hdeous murmur
to nay ear
Came murmur like the murmur of assassins in
their sleep,
Muttering, 'Higher higher higher am Demon
of the Fire;
I am Arch-F iend of the Fire, and each blazing
roofs my pyre,
And my sweetest incense is the blood and tears my
victims weep.
a. How revel on tie prairie how I roar among
How laugh when from the village Ger the snow
the red flame shines,
And hear the shrieks of terror, with life in every
breath
How scream with lambert laughter, as 1 hurl
each cracking rafter
Down the fell abyss Of fire, until higher, higher,
higher
Leap the high priests of my altar in their merry
dance of death.'''
In the presence of this hideous creation of
his imagination he remained pleased with
fear, till
THE martins, from the edges of its lichen-dded
lodges,
Slammed thro' the russell arches where the ightIn
torn flies marches,
Like routed army, struggling thro' the serried
ranks Of oak
'Thro' my ivy-fretted easements filtered in tren-
ulous note,
From the tall and stately linden, where robin
swelled his throat
Querulous, Quaker-breasted robin, calling quaint
ly for his mate!
Then started up, unbidden, from my slumber,
nightmare ridden,
With the memory of that ire-demon, in my GEN.
ralsire,
On my eyes interior mirror like the shadow of
fate
EAh the fiendish fire had smouIdered to a white
and formless heap,
And no knot of oak was flaming it famed upon
my sleep;
But around its very centre, where the demon face
had shone,
Forked shadows seem'd to linger, pointing as with
spectral finger
To Bible, massive, golden, table carved and
olden,
And bowed and said, 'All power is of God, of
God alone"