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The Forest Reverie | Poems by Edgar Allan Poe · Ririro.com - Poetry

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  Speaker 1: Tis said that when the hands of men came to
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  Speaker 1: this primeval wood and hoary trees, with groans of woe,
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  Speaker 1: like warriors by an unknown foe, were in their strength subdued.
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  Speaker 1: The virgin earth gave instant birth to springs that ne'er
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  Speaker 1: did flow. That in the sun did rivulets run, and
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  Speaker 1: all around rare flowers did blow. The wild rose pale
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  Speaker 1: perfumed the gale, and the queenly lily adown the dale,
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  Speaker 1: whom the sun and the dew and the winds did woo.
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  Speaker 1: With the gourd and the grape luxuriant grew. So when
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  Speaker 1: in tears the love of years is wasted like the snow,
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  Speaker 1: and the fine fribbles of its life, by the rude
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  Speaker 1: wrong of instant strife, are broken at a blow. Within
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  Speaker 1: the heart, do springs upstart of which it doth now know,
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  Speaker 1: And strange sweet dreams, like silent streams that from new
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  Speaker 1: fountains overflow with the earlier tide of rivers, glide deep
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  Speaker 1: in the heart whose hope has died, quenching the fires,
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  Speaker 1: its ashes, hide its ashes, whence will spring and grow, Oh,
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  Speaker 1: sweet flowers ere long, the rare and radiant flowers of song.
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  Speaker 1: Notes of the many verses from time to time ascribed
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  Speaker 1: to the pen of Edgar Poe, and not including among
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  Speaker 1: his known writings the lines entitled alone, have the chief
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  Speaker 1: claim to our notice. Facsimile copies of this piece have
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  Speaker 1: been in possession of the present editor some time previous
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  Speaker 1: to its publication in Scribner's Magazine for September eighteen seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: but as proofs of the authorship claimed for it were
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  Speaker 1: not forthcoming, he refrained from publishing it as requested. The
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  Speaker 1: desired proofs have not yet been adduced, and there is
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  Speaker 1: at present nothing but internal evidence to guide us. Alone
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  Speaker 1: is stated to have been written by Poe in the
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  Speaker 1: Album of a Baltimore Lady, Missus Balderstone question Mark on
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  Speaker 1: March seventeenth, eighteen twenty nine, and the facsimile given in
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  Speaker 1: Scribner's is alleged to be of his handwriting. If the
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  Speaker 1: calligraphy be pose, it is different in all essential respects
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  Speaker 1: from all the many specimens known to us, and strongly
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  Speaker 1: resembles that of the writer of the heading and dating
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  Speaker 1: of the manuscript, both of which the contributor of the
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  Speaker 1: poem acknowledges to have been recently added. The lines, however,
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  Speaker 1: if not by Poe, are the most successful imitation of
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  Speaker 1: his early mannerisms yet made public, and in the opinion
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  Speaker 1: of one well qualified to speak, are not unworthy of
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  Speaker 1: the whole of the percentage claimed for them. While Edgar
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  Speaker 1: Poe was editor of the Broadway Journal, some lines to
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  Speaker 1: Isidore appeared therein, and, like several of his known pieces,
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  Speaker 1: bore no signature, they were at once ascribed to Poe,
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  Speaker 1: and in order to satisfy questioners, an editorial paragraph subsequently
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  Speaker 1: appeared saying that they were by a Ide junior. Two
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  Speaker 1: previous poems had appeared in the Broadway Journal over the
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  Speaker 1: signature of A. M Ide, and whoever wrote them was
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  Speaker 1: also the author of the line to Isidore. In order,
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  Speaker 1: doubtless to give a show a variety, Poe was then
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  Speaker 1: publishing some of his known works in his journal over
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  Speaker 1: nom de plume. And as no other writings whatever can
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  Speaker 1: be traced to any person bearing the name of A.
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  Speaker 1: M Ide, it is not impossible that the poems now
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  Speaker 1: republished in this collection may be by the author of
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  Speaker 1: The Raven. Having been published without his usual elaborate revision,
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  Speaker 1: Poe may have wished to hide his hasty work under
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  Speaker 1: an assumed name. The three pieces are included in the
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  Speaker 1: present collection so the reader can judge for himself what
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  Speaker 1: pretensions they possess to be by the author of the
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  Speaker 1: Raven