The White Pine news. [volume] (Treasure City, Nev.) 1868-1906, 1897-09-25
POE AND HIS CRITICS.

The Fierce Controversy In Which the Au-
thor Was Charged with Plagiarism.
An interesting article in The Fo-
rum by Mr.. Joel Benton will shed a
new light on the almost forgotten
Chivers Poe controversy of so years
ago. Thomas Holley Chivers was a
minor poet somewhat in vogue half
a century ago. Of his poetry Mr..
Benton says that lit is mainly trash.
Now and then, however, he struck
a note quite above this dead and
wide pervading commonplace, and
whenever he did the verses brought
forth were apt to suggest the mech
anism and flavor of Poe. He not
only said at various times that Poe
had borrowed largely from him, but
he put the transaction in much bold
Or terms. The charge of fragrant
plagiarism of himself by Poe, in re-
spect even of The Raven and An
mabel Lee, was not withheld, but
was violently advanced by Chivers.
Nor was he alone in making this
charge. Some of his friends took it
up and repeated it with a vehemence
and an ability worthy of a most sa-
cred cause A few snatches from
some of Chivers' best poems L Civ
en-, most of which antedate Poe's
period of literary activity, and, as
Mr.. Benton remarks, mot a few
have the Poe afiatus and melody SO
strongly inherent in them that even
the noncritical reader could not mis-
take their related quality" 1t seems
that in the latter part of 1853 Chiv-
ers, under a nom de plume i'll The
Waverley Magazine, charged Poe
with fragrant plagiarism. Chivers
quotes from his own book, 1.-The
Lost Pleiad," the following lines
from the poem ITO allegro In Heav-
en-" published a few years before
1.-THE Raven appeared, which, he
asserts, "show the intelligent read
or the true and only source from
which Poe obtained his Style in
that poem:
holy angels now are bending to receive thy
soul ascending
Up to heaven to joys amending and to bliss
which is divine,
While thy pale, cold form is fading under
deaths dark wings now shading
Thee with Oloom which ia neryadinp this moor
broker heart Of mine.
And as God doth lift the spirit up to hca,en
there to inherit
Those rewards which 1t doth merit, such as
none has reaped before,
Thy dear father will tomorrow lay thy body
with deep sorrow
In the grave which is 80 narrow, there to r. st
forever more.
Thereupon a fierce controversy
was waged, and for months the rela-
tive merits of the question We're dis
cussed with great vehemence by a
number Of writers. Some upheld the
charge made by Chivers, while 9th
ers belittled his assumption and en-
throned Poe on the pinnacle of
poetic genius. Mr.. Benton reviews
the whole controversy, but as 10
what conclusion can be deduced
from the facts he cites, Mr.. Benton
very naively remarks that leach
reader will be certain to make his
own. No critic will doubt that to
Poe belonged the wonderful magic
and mastery of this species of song.
If to him who says a thing best the
thing belongs, no II will hesitate
to decide that Poe is entitled to the
bays which crown him. 1t is a fact
that, with all the contemporary air
ing of the subject, it is Poe's ce-
lebrity and not Chivers' that re-
mains. The finer instinct and touch
are what the world takes account of.
Chivers, except at rare intervals,
did not approach near enough to the
true altitude. He put no boundary
between what was %grotesque and
what was inspired. He was too Shot
breathed to stay poised on the
heights and was but accidentally
poetic"