Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-07-26
LITERARY PIRACY.

LITERARY PIKACY.
AND NOW POE is ACCUSED OF
STEALING THE RAVEN"
The Best Refutation is, However, in Poe.
PHILOSOPHY Of Composition. in Which Hs
Details, Step by Step. the Evolution Of the
Great POEMS it Not Probable that " The
Parrot" was a Suggestion from 1.-The Ra
ven?
Colonel John A. Joyce, the IRE.
pressible literary iconoclast, is smash.
ing idols again. Joyce is the man
who disputes with Ella Wheeler Viii.
cox the authorship OF Laugh and the
World Laughs with You," and who
stoutly insists that the lines were writ
ten by him years before the Poetess
OF Passion" gave them TO the public.
But this is nothing compared to
Colonel" Joyce's latest iconoclasm
The doughty colonel asserts that Poe
stole "The Raven" almost bodily from
a poem called "The Parrott," written
by an Italian named PenzOni, and
published in the Art Journal at Milan
in 1909. And, in proof of this, Joyce
produces the story Of a peripatetic ar.
tist who says Author Penzoni was his
grandfather, and that he has in his
possession q translation OF the original
poem.
"The Raven" was first published in
the american Review in February,
lS45, under the name "Quarles." !"
Later it was reprinted in the Erening
Mirror and credited to Poe with a
laudatory review by N. P. Willis. In
Poe's essay on "The Philosophy of
Composition" he explains fully how
he was prompted to write this poem.
AS keynote he selected the word
nevermore" as the refrain. He says
"Immediately arose Tin my mind)
the idea of non-reasoning creature
capable of speech; and, very naturally, +,
q parrot, in the frat instance, sug-
gested itself, but was superseded forth
with by raven"
If Colonel Joyce's Italian friend
happened to read this explanation and
was inclined to palm off literary for
gerry on his grandfather, he might
very naturally have named parody
OF The Raven" "The Parrot"
Colonel Joyce says that he met Leo
Penzoni, peripatetic italian artist,
in New York in 1878. According to
the author Penzoni had bohemian
disposition and frequently painted the
town red. On one of those jovial oc-
casions when the Kentucky colonel
boasted of Poe as an American genius
Penzoni asserted that The Raven"
was taken almost bodily from his
grandfather's poem, "The Parrot"
which was published in 1909.
"All the boys at the table," says
the author, "deied him to produce
the poem and back up the emphatic
assertion. While he could not give at
the time all the verses, he recited a
half dozen or more, and promised that
he would make literal translation of
the poem when next in Milan, and il
possible get a copy Of the paper, and
on his return to New York let me
know of his success.
"About four months afterward re-
ceived from him the following letter
and poem. It has lain for more than
twenty-five years in pocket of my
trunk, almost forgotten, but as the
public will be interested and benefited
BY everything relating to the late Ed
gar Allan Poe, give Penzoni's letter
and The Parrot in the facsimile OF
his handwriting. just as I first saw it
at the Sturtevant house.
Il have been an ardent admirer OF
Poe's erratic and lunatic genius for
nearly fifty years. and during my
school days in Kentucky was noted
for reciting his Bells,'' Annabel Lee,
and The Raven poems of rare and
curious combination.
"There is certainly very marked
similarity between The Raven and
The Parrot and one might be taken
directly from the other with but very
little alteration.
Whether Penzoni or Poe COM
posed the original it is not for me to
say"
PENzONI's "THE PARROT"
"The Parrot" is about the same
length as "The Raven" and it is not
necessary TO quote it in full to estab-
lish a close relationship between the
two poems. It begins:
I sit and pine so weary in midnight sad
and dreary,
Over long-forgotten volumes of historic
love- lit lore;
And while winking, lonely blinking.
thought heard while thinking
rush of wings revolving above my
oaken door.
What's that" said I, disturbing my
melancholy sore
lis my lost one, sweet "Belmore!"
The frosts of wild December invoke me
to disremember
My tired and tortured body on this
dreary, bastard shore,
And I trust no waking morrow
Shall rise upon my sorrow,
With all its hideous horror that now
thrills my inmost core
Il n