1910. EBB to Richard Hengist Horne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 207–208.
50 Wimpole Street
May 12. 1845.
How kind, how kind of you, dear Mr Horne, to think of bringing me a “note on” Germany. Am I really to keep it,—or read & return it? Because it is beautiful, full of repose & expression, .. both at once. Is it intended that I shd keep it? If so, I thank you again.
Your friend, Mr Poe, is a speaker of strong words “in both kinds,”—but I hope you will assure him from me that I am grateful for his review, [1] & in no complaining humour at all. As to the Raven .... tell me what you shall say about it? .. there is certainly a power, .. but it does not appear to me the natural expression of a sane intellect in whatever mood, and I think that this shd be specified in the title of the poem. There is a fantasticalness about the ‘Sir or Madam’ & things of the sort, which is ludicrous, you know, .. unless there is a specified insanity to justify the straws. Probably he, .. the author, .. intended to be mad in the poem,—& he ought to have intended it. The rhythm acts excellently on the imagination, .. & the ‘evermore’ has a solemn chime with it. Dont get me into a scrape, .. the “pokerishness” (just gods, what Mohawk English!) might be found fatal, peradventure! And besides, .. just because I have been criticised, I would not criticise. And besides, I am of opinion that there is an uncommon force & effect in the poem.
I am delighted at the prospect of Orion’s being republished in New York. I love the Americans, & think they deserve your Orion. A noble & cordial people!—for all their “pokerishness,” … ‘save the mark.’ [2]
But Mr Poe seems to me in a great mist on the subject of metre—. You yourself have skipped all the philosophy of the subject in your excellent treatise in ‘Chaucer Modernized,’ .. & you shut your ears, when I tried to dun you about it one day. That Chaucer wrote on precisely the same principles, (eternal principles) as the Greek poets did, I believe unalterably,—& you, who are a musician, ought to have sung it out loud in the ears of the public. There is no ‘pedantic verbiage’ in Longinus. But Mr Poe who attributes the Œdipus Colonœus to Æschylus (vide the review on me) sits somewhat loosely, probably, on his classics. [3]
Yours truly ever
EBB–
Address: R H Horne Esqre / Hill Side / Fitzroy Park / Highgate.
Publication: EBB-RHH, II, 174–176 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Poe’s review of EBB’s A Drama of Exile, and Other Poems (1844) appeared in The Broadway Journal for 4 and 11 January 1845, pp. 4–8 and pp. 17–20, respectively; for the text, see pp. 349–357.
2. Cf. I Henry IV, I, 3, 56.
3. See p. 350.
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