Page:The Raven; with literary and historical commentary.djvu/43

 Rh what Mohawk English!) might be found fatal, peradventure. Besides—just because I have been criticised, I would not criticise. And I am of opinion that there is an uncommon force and effect in the poem."

With regard to one item in Mrs. Browning's critique, it may be pointed out that Poe, in his Philosophy of Composition—perhaps after having read a copy of the lady's remarks expressly states that "about the middle" of The Raven, with a view of deepening, by force of contrast, the ultimate impression of intense melancholy, he had given "an air of the fantastic, approaching as nearly to the ludicrous as was admissible"—to his poem. Guided by the opinions of others, or by her own more matured judgment, Mrs. Browning thought fit, at a later period, to speak in terms of stronger admiration of Poe's poem. Writing to an American correspondent she said: "The Raven has produced a sensation—a 'fit horror,' here in England. Some of my friends are taken by the fear of it, and some by the music. I hear of persons haunted by the Nevermore, and one acquaintance of mine, who has the misfortune of possessing 'a bust of Pallas,' never can bear to look at it in the twilight. Our great poet, Mr. Browning, author of Paracelsus, &c., is enthusiastic in his admiration of the rhythm."

As with nearly all Poe's literary workmanship, both prose and verse, The Raven underwent several alterations and revisions after publication. The more minute of these changes do not call for notice here,