Morris tribune., 1897-06-16
POE AND : Aas CRITICS.


Tho Fsa-oe CunssDpesay In AVlziEaa the an
thor Was CAassea W1sA ESagiasasm.
An interesting article in The Fo-
rum by Mr. joel Benton will shed a
new light on the almost forgotten
Chivers-P 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 sit 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 vHr4ous 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
upand repeated itwfth avehemence
and an ability worthy Of a most sa-
cred cause." A Few snatches from
some Of Chivezs' best poems are Civ
en-, most of. which antedate Poe's
period Of literary activity, and, as
Mr.. Benton remarks, mot a few
have the Poe afRatus and melody so
strongly inherent IN them that even
thenoncritical reader could not mis-
take their related quality" It seems
that in the latter part Of 1853 Chiv
ers, under a nom de plume in The
Waverley Magazine, charged Poe
with fragrant plagiarism. Chivers
quotes from his own book, 1.-THE
Lost Pieiad," the following lines
from the poem ITO allegro In Heav-
en-" published a 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 unending and to bliss
which is divine,
While thy pale, cold form is fading under
deaths dark wings now shading
Thee with gloom which is pervading this poor
broken heart Of mine.
And as God doth lift the spirit up to heaven
there to inherit
Those rewards which it doth merit, such as
none has reaped before,
Thy dear father will tomorrow lay thy body
In the grave which is SO narrow, there to rest
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
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 to
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 thing best the
thing belongs, no one will hesitate
to decide that Poe is entitled to the
bays which crown him. It is fact
that, with all the contemporary air
ing of the subject, it is Poe's &C.
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. -