The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1897-07-01
POE AND HIS CRITICS.

II
The Fierce Controversy In Which the Au-
thor Was Charged witt Plagiarism.
d An interesting articJ III The Fo.
rum by Mr.. yoel Bent4 ll will shed d
new light on the ain II forgotten
'Chivers Poe oontrovs fsy of SO years
ago. Thomas Holley Chivers was q
minor poet somewhat in vogue half
peeentury ago. sVfvRis peetpy Mr..
.Berton says that sit i nEAinfS5 thrash.
Now and then, however, he struck
a note7quite 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
er 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 vehemenee
and an ability worthy of most s.
cred cause" A few snatches fro
some of Chivers' best poems are I'll 4
en-, most of which antedate Poi
period of literary activity, and, III
Mr.. Benton remarks, mot a few
have the Poe afflatus and melody so
Strongly inherent in them that even
he noncritical reader could not mis-
take their related quality" 1t seems
that in the latter part of 1853 Chi
ers, unQeSa nom de plume in TN
Waverley Magazine, charged P
with fragrant plagiarism. ChiveiV
quotes from his own book, "The
Lost Pleiad," the following lines
from the poem "To Allegro In Heav-
en-, published few years before
"The Raven" appeared, which, he
asserts, 'show the intelligent read.
er 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 blis
which is divine,
While thy pale, cold form is fading undel
deaths dark wings now shading =
Thee with gloom which is peg Ming this pool
broken heart of mine.
And as God doth lift the spirit up to HEAVIER
there to Inherit IL N
Those rewards which it doth merit, such Al
none a..5s reaIed before,
Thy dear father will tomorrow lay thy bod,
with deep sorrow ~
In the grave which is so narrow, there TO res
forever more.
Thereupon a fierce controversy
was waged, and for months the rela
tive merits of the question were dis
cussed with great vehemence by 6
number of writer's. 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 tC
what conclusion can be deducet
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 tc
Poe belonged the wonderful magic
and mastery of this species of song.
If to him who says thing best the
thing belongs, no one 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 short
breathed to stay poised on the
heights and was but accidentally
poetic"