I need to find a summarized version of Poe's poem Oh Temporal! Oh Mores!. I also need to know his first ever literary piece that was published if this is not it. Thanx in advance.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2004

Answers

This was a personal satire addressed concerning Robert Pitts, a dry goods clerk who was a friend of Poe's. I don't believe it was published or meant to be. The small chapbook he worked up much later for his friends at West Point to raise money was an extreme disappointment because it pointedly did not include "funny" verse caracatures they had come to expect. I think this might have hurt Poe's confidence in his own verse so that he hid his genius in the guise of a critic until he won complete acclaim in his own right. Though Poe's best poems could be rejected, it is remarkable how with his small output so many bear the stamp of quality genius and classic memorability,

This is a cautionary note on the value of the judgment of contests, editors or even official viewpoint of the conditioned public. The stuff of "history" and authority and the establishment(which Poe despised).I think when Poe died, the common folk recognized he was a great poet. That anecdotal highest praise is common in other countries, but in our Democracy, deference is given to literary aristocracy, wealthy publishers, uncreative blowhard critics and the status quo. Small wonder even Poe's simplest works are so badly misunderstood much less poorly appreciated.

-- Anonymous, April 22, 2004