Page:The Raven; with literary and historical commentary.djvu/107

 Fabrications. many of them. Du Solle quotes particular instances of phrases that were incorporated at his suggestion, and thus The Raven was a kind of joint-stock affair in which many minds held small shares of intellectual capital. At length, when the last stone had been placed in position, the structure was voted complete! "

Another class of forgeries connected with the would-be imitators of Edgar Poe's style is known as the "Spiritual Poems." These so-called "poems" are wild rhapsodical productions supposed to be dictated by the spirits of departed genius to earthly survivors: they have always to be given through the medium of a mortal, and although generally endowed with rhyme are almost always devoid of reason. Edgar Poe is a favoured subject with these "mediums," and by means of Miss Lizzie Doten, one of their most renowned improvisatrice, has produced an imitation of his Raven, which she styled the "Streets of Baltimore," and in which the departed poet is made to describe his struggle with death and his triumphant entry into eternity. One stanza of this curious production will, doubtless, suffice:—