“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” Blog Post

by Amanda G.

Samuel Clemens, better know by his pen name, Mark Twain, was born in Florida Missouri on November 30, 1835.[i] He moved West with his family to Hannibal, Missouri when he was 4, and it was here that Twain would spend his childhood years, and would later write of the many influences of his life on the frontier. [ii]His first job was as an apprentice to a printer’s apprentice for Joseph Ament and was able to secure the job in 1848. Twains first sketches appeared in his brother Orion’s Hannibal journal in 1851, as well as having several sketches published in the Philadelphia Saturday Evening post in 1852. Twain moved around several times, working as a printer in New York city, but eventually returned to his hometown of Hannibal at the age of 19 to pursue his career as a steamboat pilot. Although he secured his pilot license, his career on the Mississippi River was short lived after the Civil War broke out in April 1861 and all trade on the river was halted.

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was Twain’s first literary sensation and was read across the country within a matter of months. [iii] The story of the jumping frog is a story within a story. Twain draws on comical stereotypes of the day through the narrator, whom is a proper, well-mannered Easterner in search of Reverend Leonidas W. Smiley. He also elaborates on the stereotypical Westerner, through his character Simon Wheeler, describing him as “dozing” in an “old dilapidated tavern in the ancient mining camp of Angel’s.”[iv] This man tells the narrator of a completely unrelated character, Jim Smiley, who is of the same last name as the Reverend, and his obsession with betting. Old man Wheeler tells of the many different bets of Jim Smiley, and finally to his unfair defeat by a man who tricked him out of a forty dollar bet on two jumping frogs. The moral of the story is that the more educated and civilized are not always the winners, at least in regards to life on the frontier. Twain writes through a style of realism, using slang and colloquialism’s to accurately depict his character’s as what he thought they would be like in reality.

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[i] “A Life Lived in a Rapidly Changing World: Samuel L. Clemens‚ 1835-1910.” Welcome to the Mark Twain House & Museum. The Mark Twain House and Museum, n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/biography_main.php&gt;.

[ii] “Hannibal.net | The Hannibal Courier-Post.” Hannibal.net | The Hannibal Courier-Post. The Hannibal Courier Post and Gatehouse Media, n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2013. <http://www.marktwainhannibal.com/twain/biography/&gt;.

[iii] ibid.

[iv] Twain, Mark. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches. New York: Oxford UP, 1996. Print.

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” Blog Post

by Sam R.

Mark Twain who was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is one of the most famous American authors and humorists who lived from November 30^th 1835 till April 21^st 1910.  He was born to a part time judge named John Clemens who purchased a large amount of land in Tennessee he hoped to get rich off but never did (Winship).  By the age of 18 Samuel had moved to New York and had begun writing for some small local newspapers to get his foot in the door (marktwainhouse.org).  While he would eventually marry and have three children, he decided at a young age to travel extensively throughout the United States (marktwainhouse.org). He experienced new and different culture which would help contribute to his writing and he eventually caught his first big break as an author with his story “Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog” (marktwainhouse.org).  This would help boost his popularity and prominence in the writing and lecturing community from then on out (marktwainhouse.org). His literary work has lead authors like Ernest Hemingway to say “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn (Winship).

His first book The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and other Sketches was published in May of 1867, and was his first piece of work that began to gain notoriety (Winship).  Mark Twain discussed the origins of the jumping frog story in the April 1894 issue of the North American Review (Burkart).  He began to state that the story itself was not his own and that it had been told to him by his friend Hopkinson Smith.  Twain had given a Finish woman the story out of Harpers Monthly as an example of what ‘Negro dialect’ was like and she subsequently ran the story in Twain’s name instead of Smith’s, which led him to be accused of plagiarism by the Swedish press (Burkart).  In the same article Twain went on to discuss how a Professor at Princeton named Van Dyke informed him that the story was actually a Greek one that happened two thousand years before Twain had ever written it, and how this perspective actually hurt him and was one he did not agree with (Burkart). Regardless of the origins of the story, it was an integral one in helping launch Mark Twain’s career.

“A Life Lived in a Rapidly Changing World: Samuel L. Clemens‚ 1835-1910.” Welcome to the Mark Twain House & Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Sept. 2013.

Burkart, Gina. “Past Perfect: The Jumping Frog Story – Both Old and New.” The North American Review Vol. 293, No. 6 (November-December 2008), p.40

Winship, Robert. “On the Autobiography Of Mark Twain.” Texas Review 33.1/2(2012): 101-1113. Academic Search Complete. 7 Sept. 2013

Emily Dickinson Blog Post

by Victoria W.

Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in December of 1830.  She was raised as a “Victorian girl” and educated as such (Farr 1).  In their teenage years her sister, Lavinia, and herself pursued their education in former boy’s school, Amherst Academy (Sewall 337). Education and the pursuit of knowledge was a vital aspect to Dickinson’s life from an early age. After attending Amherst Academy and then a short stint Mary Lyon’s Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, she returned home without a clear reason. Her return home occurred in the late 1840’s and lasted for the remainder of her life. She became a recluse, and physically isolated herself. She began dedicating her time at home to maintaining written correspondences with friends and pursuing her studies, including reading a great deal of literature. Some of the literature that proved significant in her early years as a writer include, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry s well as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s first book of collected poems. The metaphysical poets of the 17^th century England proved most influential on her work and as she said “touched the secret Spring”, referring to an awakening of her inner poet (Habeggar 221). She was also influenced by religious texts, often ones leaning towards a Calvinist, conservative Christian outlook (Academy of American Poets). These influences can be observed in her texts such as the religious undertones and metaphors in 475 [488]. Her influence from Emerson has been analyzed as “ broadly refer[ing] to the general and looming concern with autonomy and individualism”, a central concern too much of Emerson’s work (Shira Wolosky 35). The conflict between self and society is seen through out Dickinson’s poems, similar to much of Emerson’s work.

Beyond the influence of published writings Dickinson relied heavily on her correspondence for inspiration both poetically and in thought. “The correspondents could speak their minds outside the formulas of parlor conversation”, this free flow of ideas and opinions stimulated Dickinson’s mind and encouraged her to explore her innermost opinions and as she did this it became exposed though her poetry. She valued her friends as a central aspect of her life and even commented, “My friends are my ‘estate’” (Poetry Foundation). The correspondences Dickinson kept allowed her to grow as a poet and forced her to question the things often so easily defined, these topics include such things as life and death. The years of Dickinson’s isolation gave way to greater personal growth; intellectually, this is time in which she explored personal questions and troubles as well as evaluating the world around her and her place in it, as represented through her poetry.

 

Bibliography:

Dickinson, Emily. “475 [488].” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume B, Ninth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2012.

“Emily Dickinson.” Poets.org. The Academy of American Poets, 2013. Web. 1 Sept. 2013.

“Emily Dickinson.” Poeryfoundation.org. The Poetry Foundation, 2013. Web. 31 Aug. 2013.

Farr, Judith. The Passion of Emily Dickinson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. Print.

Habeggar, Alfred. My Wars Are Laid in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. Modern Library, 2002. Print.

Wolosky, Shira. “Dickinson’s Emerson: A Critique of American Identity.” 9.2

Emily Dickinson Blog Post

by Brendan M.

When looking at the poetry of Emily Dickinson, it is very important to look at the Civil War and it’s effect it had on Ms. Dickinson. The Civil War was the bloodiest era America had seen, and it was also the time that Emily Dickinson wrote an enormous amount of her work (Taggart 76). The severity of the war and the new weapon technology that allowed for faster and more brutal combat made Dickinson consider issues of liberty, life, and death in ways that she never had done so previously (Martin 34). Looking at two of her poems from this period, it is easy to see the issue of death being presented. In the poem titled “320” Dickinson ends her poem with the word death, and in the poem titled “407” death and ghost like images are presented throughout the poems entirety.

The impact of the Civil War on Emily Dickinson seems to be apparent with the subject matter of her poems at that time, but many theorist believe that other events happening at the time also might have been effecting Emily in ways that inspired her to write such a large amount of her work. From 1861 to 1865 Ms. Dickinson wrote approximately half of her 1,800 existing poems. In 1862 Ms. Dickinson wrote an average of one completely finished poem a day and many of these poems were considered to be her best work (Kirk 77). This enormous amount of poetry leaves many scholars wondering what besides the Civil War had such an effect on Ms. Dickinson to cause her to write such a large amount of her work and some of her most passionate work. The most advanced and what many people consider believable theory is that the sudden influx of passionate work came after she experienced a failed love affair. There are many possible candidates who could have been her possible lover, but unfortunately there is no hard evidence that supports any of the men being the one she had an affair with (Kirk 78). Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest American poets to have ever lived, and even though she has been and continues to be studied, there is still so much about her that remains a mystery including the reasons for so much of her work being written in the years of the Civil War.

 

Bibliography

Dickinson, Emily. “320” and “407.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume B, Ninth Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 2012.

Kirk, Connie Ann. Emily Dickinson: A Biography. Westport Ct: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

Martin, Wendy. The Cambridge Introduction to Emily Dickinson. United Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Taggard, Genevieve. The Life and Mind of Emily Dickinson. New York, NY: Cooper Square Publishers Inc. 1967.

“On Self Reliance” Blog Post

by Tiffany C.

“Self Reliance” was written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1830 in which he embraced the ideas of Transcendentalism. As a transcendentalist, he stressed individualism, non-conformity, and the need for harmony between man and nature (Merriman). Emerson’s childhood upbringings in a conservative, Utilitarian household, his sufferings from a number of premature familial deaths, and experiences interacting with other influential intellectuals during that time, shaped his life and career.

Emerson’s childhood and struggle with the Christian faith influenced his work. Emerson’s father, a minister, died when he was only eight years old. This was the first of many deaths to follow: all three brothers, his first wife at age twenty, and his older son at five, all of which many believed shaped his life (Woodlief). After his father’s death, Emerson’s aunt, Mary Moody Emerson who also enforced his Utilitarian upbringing, came to take care of him and his siblings. Her influence on Emerson was paramount. As an educated intellectual, Mary argued as a feminist against America’s patriarchal society. Her intellectualism and emphasis on individual thought is known to be responsible for  modeling Emerson into an independent, widely-read, self-educated intellectual (Battiste). In “Self Reliance”, Emerson emphasizes this notion of individualism by embracing the philosophy of depending on oneself for the search for divine truth. After a year of marriage to his first wife, Ellen Tucker, she died of tuberculosis. Ellen’s death caused Emerson to dive into a period of intense grief. Her death, along with his struggle with his faith, caused him to step down as a clergyman (The Biography Channel Website). Ellen Tucker’s death marked Emerson’s struggle with his Christian upbringings.

Emerson’s experience as a traveller allowed him to meet many other famous intellectuals during the time. During his time in Massachusetts, he met Transcendentalist thinkers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau, whom he maintained a close relationship with. During his visits in England, he met William Wordsworth and Thomas Carlyle. He maintained a relationship with Thomas Carlyle and together, they wrote Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and R.W. Emerson (Merriman). Emerson’s interactions with these men allowed Emerson to grow as a Transcendentalist.

 

“Ralph Waldo Emerson.” 2013. The Biography Channel website. Aug 24 2013, 01:32 http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-waldo-emerson-9287153.

Merriman, C.D. “Ralph Waldo Emerson.” – Biography and Works. Search Texts, Read Online. Discuss. Jalic Inc. Copyright, 2007. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://www.online-literature.com/emerson/>.

Woodlief, Ann. “Ralph Waldo Emerson.” Ralph Waldo Emerson. American Transcendentalist Web, n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://transcendentalism-legacy.tamu.edu/authors/emerson/>.

Battiste, Janice. “”A Good Aunt Is More to a Poet Than a Patron:” Mary Moody Emerson, a Model of Self-Reliance.” WILLA V5 – “A Good Aunt Is More to a Poet Than a Patron:” Mary Moody Emerson, a Model of Self-Reliance. The Women in Literature and Life Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2013. <http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/old-WILLA/fall96/battiste.html>.

“Bartleby the Scrivener” Blog Post

by Alex M.

Herman Melville’s short story “Bartleby, The Scrivener” was originally published anonymously in 1853 by Putnam’s Magazine, and was later included in Melville’s collection of short stories The Piazza Tales in 1856. “Bartleby” was written by Melville in what Lewis Mumford refers to as Melville’s “miserable year”, citing the underwhelming success of the massive and draining work Moby Dick in 1851 and the commercially and critically derided Pierre in 1852 — which left him in a financial strain that was complemented by an inability to land a government job (Mumford 57). The biographical context of Melville’s life during the writing of “Bartleby” offers insight into the formulation of the eponymous character’s eccentricities, as well as the satirical elements of the story.

Melville’s social life had drifted away during the writing of “Bartleby” and his sense of isolation clearly seeps into the themes of the story. Egbert Oliver notes that a common view of “Bartleby” among Melville scholars is that “it is a picture of Melville’s mind” (Oliver 61). Supporting this idea, David McCall points out connections between Melville’s eye troubles and Bartleby’s alleged eye troubles, as well as Melville’s lack of diet while writing the story and Bartleby’s lack of desire to eat (McCall 37, 39).  Moreover, Bartleby’s self-induced hermitage offers a faint impression of Melville’s own mindset while writing the story, and mirrors his own self-imposed hermitage at “Arrowhead” — the name for his property in Pittsfield, MA. Extensive borrowing of money and the commercial failure of Moby Dick and Pierre forced Melville into writing short stories for magazines (Sealts 477). Melville was pressured by friends and family to “go into business and make a good living, or at least write the sort of books that the public would read” (Mumford 60), a course that parallels the routine and monotonous demands placed on Bartleby by his social environment.

A striking difference between Melville and Bartleby is that while Melville had no original intention to write for periodicals, and would seemingly prefer not to (Sealts 482), financial strain and the flow of social necessity pushed him to the work, whereas Bartleby obstinately refuses to do anything at all, his individualism pushing him towards his own demise. This difference highlights the satirical aspects of the story that stem from Melville’s anti-transcendentalist views. Oliver suggests that in his isolation, the writings of Henry David Thoreau would have left some impression on Melville and that there are numerous parallels between Thoreau’s Transcendentalist philosophies and Bartleby’s actions (Oliver 64-65). Namely, Bartleby’s nearly absurd perseverance and his repetition of “I would prefer not,” which almost directly leads to his death by starvation, mirrors and mocks elements of Thoreau’s “Resistance to Civil Government” such as when Thoreau is requested by the state to pay a sum:  “‘Pay,’ it said, ‘or be locked up in the jail.’ I declined to pay” (Thoreau).

 

McCall, David. The Silence of Bartleby. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. Print.

Mumford, Lewis. “Melville’s Miserable Years.” Ed. M. Thomas Inge Bartleby the Inscrutable. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1979. Print.

Oliver, Egbert. “A Second Look at Bartleby.” Ed. M. Thomas Inge Bartleby the Inscrutable. Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1979. Print.

Sealts, Merton. “Appendix: Historical Note.” From: Melville, Herman. The Piazza Tales. Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1987. Print.

Thoreau, Henry David. “Civil Disobedience.” (1849) The Thoreau Reader. The Thoreau Society, Web. 12 Aug 2013. <http://thoreau.eserver.org/default.html>.

“The Purloined Letter” Blog Post

by Nathan P.

             While Edgar Allan Poe had the tendency to gravitate towards the macabre, he also served as a pioneer for the western detective genre with his set of three detective stories. In contrast to his more well-known short stories of imagination and emotion (a darker counterpart to romanticism), “[The detective stories] have logical explanation. The fantastic aspect is not presented. In all these stories, we know at the end who is guilty, and who causes the crimes” (Castillo). Unlike one of Poe’s trademark works, “The Raven,” the main character’s decisions are not driven by a tickling lunacy, but stone-cold intellect and reasoning; this variance in his own works reflect the slow shift of literature from the romantic era (which peaked in the 1840’s) towards the era of realism (which fittingly became popular in the second half of the 19^th century).

The inconsistency of the nature “The Purloined Letter,” when compared to the other works of the time, is strengthened by the publishing date – 1844, a year following the peak of romanticism and preceding the beginning of realism. Frankly, during this year, while romanticism still lived prominently, the genre was beginning to grow stale in the eyes of the public. According to George Lippard, an accomplished writer of Poe’s time, with regards to Poe’s “Lady Annabel”, “…thus, your style, although generally nervous, is at times somewhat exuberant — but the work, as a whole, will be admitted, by all but your personal enemies, to be richly inventive and imaginative — indicative of genius in its author” (Lippard). Lippard’s description summarizes romanticism as a whole, an undoubtedly common opinion on the genre that might have spurred Poe’s interest in the world of super sleuthing.

One final thing to note is that, while Poe was an accomplished dark romantic, “The Purloined Letter” seems to even mock romantic thoughts, and promote those of realists, rewarding those who look with their intellects, and not their hearts. With regards to the ability of solving the story’s mystery, Jacques Lacan, who gave a seminar on this story, said, “This would no doubt be too much to ask them, not because of their lack of insight but rather because of ours. For their imbecility is neither of the individual nor the corporative variety; its source is subjective” (Lacan). The aforementioned subjectivity refers to the collective opinion of the then common romantic masses of minds, and the inability to cope with the mysteries of the future without first looking at the world in a more realistic way.

 

Castillo, Marisol R. “Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders In The Rue Morgue And The Detective        Story.” Web log post. Academia. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

Lacan, Jacques. “Seminar on ‘The Purloined Letter.’” Purloined Poe: Lacan, Derrida, and   psychoanalytic reading. Eds. John P. Muller and Willian J. Richardson. Baltimore: John   Hopkins University Press, 1988. 39.

Thomas, Dwight. Poe in Philadelphia, 1838-1844. Diss. University of Pennsylvania, 1978. Print.

“The City in the Sea” Blog Post

by Angel M.

During Mr Poe’s life he dealt with the death of two important figures in his life, his mother and his wife which both had sub come to the treacherous death of tuberculosis (Edgar Allan Poe – Biography). The first death lead him to be taken in by the Allan family who cared for him until he went off to the military. After some years Mr. Poe went on to marry his cousin who after a few years of marriage was dying of tuberculosis. Having to witness the death of two important people in his life Mr. Poe sought some comfort in drinking his sorrows away (Edgar Allan Poe – Biography), because after  witnessing  a disease that attacks a person’s pulmonary track, which lead to terrible sweats, fever and bloody cough must have taken its toll on Mr. Poe’s psyche (Tuberculosis Symptoms). With this so called “motivation” Poe went on to write many poems and narrative such as “The Raven” which dealt with horrifying deaths such as this poem (Edgar Allan Poe – Biography). This poem was published three times with three different names each one that signified death, despair, and sin. The first publication was named the “Doomed City”, then “The City of Sin”, and finally in 1845 became known as the “The City in the Sea” (Cummings Study Guide). Although they were published with different names these works all had the same theme and underlying theme of death, doom, swelling seas, and of water turning red. These themes can be perceived to be reflections of what Mr. Poe felt and saw during the death of his wife and mother. With the disease came feelings of despair and doom, which rose from the constant deterioration of his wife and mother, that drained him of all hope that his wife or mother could be “saved” in a mortal way and also religious manner . Knowing their fate of death only prolonged the vivid imagery of their lungs filling with fluids and turning into blood as it was expelled from their bodies.  These images are present and play a role in many of Mr. Poe’s literary works which portrayed death in a horrid way.

 

“Cummings Study Guide.” Poe’s The City in the Sea: A Study Guide. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

“Edgar Allan Poe – Biography.” Edgar Allan Poe. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

“Tuberculosis Symptoms.” Tuberculosis Symptoms. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” Blog Post

by Anthony M.

                  Edgar Allan Poe originally published “The Fall of the House of Usher” within the Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in 1839 (eapoe.org). A year later Poe republished the short story within his two volume anthology entitled The Grotesque and Arabesque. Normally the term Arabesque describes the complexity of Islamic architecture and art. However, the association of the words grotesque and arabesque within the title implies Poe’s association of Islamic art to disturbance and fear. Within his article, UCSB PhD alumni, Jacob Rama Berman claims, “Poe’s own adoption of the arabesque illuminates his aesthetic fascination with decadence and decay” (Berman 132).  At the same time, other American writers also contributed these same qualities to the arabesque. Popular with writers of the nineteenth century, authors like Melville and Twain also wrote about the desolation of the Holy Land with their works Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1876) and The Innocents Abroad: or, The New Pilgrims’ Progress (1869). Modern scholars claim that Poe’s anthology and particularly “The Fall of the House of Usher” was “part of a larger nineteenth-century European Romantic fascination with the arabesque” (Berman 132). Scholars at the time coined this attraction with the arabesque within the century as “Holy Land mania” (Obenzinger). This “mania” emerged from the idea that America was the New Israel; a nation chosen by God as the new promised land (Obenzinger). Disappointingly when scholars like Herman Melville and John Lloyd Stephen returned they often described the land as desolate, therefore, raising apprehension about America’s potential future. As an editor during this “Holy Land mania,” Poe reviewed many works in regards to this topic.  After examining the work of John Stephen’s travel narratives, Poe himself described the contemporary Palestine as “the visible effects of the divine displeasure” (Poe 152). Poe himself could not resist the mania and used its association with decay within his anthology and short stories.

Modern scholars like Jacob Rama Berman, and Molly K. Robey, have recently taken Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” into a historical context in regards to the “Holy Land mania.” In her paper “Poe and Prophecy: Degeneration in the Holy Land and the House of Usher” Molly K. Robey claims that the description of Roderick Usher’s deterioration as a transformation from Hebrew to Arab comments on the fear and anxiety that America may become the contemporary Palestine.

 

Sources:

Berman , Jacob Rama. ‘Domestic Terror and Poe’s Arabesque Interior’, ESC, 31/1 (March 2005): 128-150.

Obenzinger, Hilton. American Palestine: Melville, Twain, and the Holy Land Mania. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1999. Print.

Poe, Edgar Allan. ‘Palæstine’, Southern Literary Messenger, February 1836, p. 152

Robey, Molly K. “Poe And Prophecy: Degeneration In The Holy Land And The House Of Usher.” Gothic Studies 12.2 (2010): 61-69. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Aug. 2013.

“The Fall of the House of Usher” Blog Post

by Meggie T.

Edgar Allan Poe’s short narrative, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” was first published in Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine in September 1839. It was later revised and republished in the Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque in 1840. However, the poem “The Haunted Palace” within the short story was separately published earlier in an issue of Baltimore Museum magazine. Voloshin suggested that the poem was incorporated into the narrative to give the poem more context as well as “a representation of the fall of thought” in the story as well as the turning point (Voloshin 22).

Thomas Dunn English, Poe’s physician and alienated friend, claimed that he tried to sell his poem “The Haunted Palace” to John L. O’Sullivan, editor of The Democratic Review (Winwar 355). However, English believed O’Sullivan rejected the offer because he had trouble comprehending the poem. Instead, Poe’s poem was published in the April 1839 issue of Baltimore Museum. Voloshin’s suggestion is consistent with Poe’s later incorporation of his poem into “The Fall of the House of Usher.” 

After the poem was published, Poe’s rival, Rufus Wilmot Griswold raised suspicion that the poem was plagiarized from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Beleaguered City.” Longfellow’s “’Beleaguered City’ is designed to imply a mind beset with lunatic fancies; and this is, identically, the intention of ‘The Haunted Palace’” (Longfellow). Even the title of Longfellow’s poem is a paraphrased version of Poe’s. In 1841, Poe wrote a letter to Griswold addressing the plagiarism suspicion and claimed that it was actually Longfellow who plagiarized him. Poe stated in his letter that although both poem shared many similarities, the “allegorical conduct, the style of its versification & expression” were all his own. He also notese c that Longfellow’s poem was published six weeks after his appeared in Baltimore’s Museum (Poe).

Even with Griswold’s suspicion, “The Haunted Palace” was one of the poems featured in the first American poetry anthology, The Poets and Poetry of America published in 1842. Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and poem, “The Haunted Mansion,” has become the classic works of American Gothic literature.

 

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Letter to Rufus Wilmot Griswold. Autographed
          letter. 28 September 1850.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Letter to Rufus Wilmot Griswold. 29 May 1841.
          <www.eapoe.org/works/letters/p4105290>

Voloshin, Beverly. “Explanation in ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’” in Studies in
          Short Fiction, Vol. 23, No. 4, Fall, 1986, pp. 419-28. 

Winwar, Frances. “The Haunted Palace. A Life of Edgar Allan Poe.” The Pennsylvania
          Magazine of History and Biography. (1959): 355-337. Web.
          <www.jstor.org/stable/20089220?seq=2>

Wohlpart, Jim. “Edgar Allan Poe ‘The Fall of the House of Usher.’” Florida Gulf Coast
          University.
          <itech.fgcu.edu/faculty/wohlpart/alra/PoeFall.htm>