SOURCE: Burch, Francis F. “Clement Mansfield Ingleby on Poe's ‘The Raven’: An Unpublished British Criticism.” American Literature 35, no. 1 (March 1963): 81-3.

In the following essay, Burch summarizes the points set forth by British literary critic Clement Mansfield Ingleby in a critical essay about “The Raven” that was dated 1850, but never published.

The present note calls attention to a hitherto unpublished British criticism of “The Raven” preserved in the Folger Shakespeare Library and listed in the catalogue under Ms. N.a. 117. Written by the noted Shakespearean scholar and editor Clement Mansfield Ingleby about 1850, some five years after the publication of Poe's poem, the manuscript bears the notation “Rough sketch of a critique on Poe's Raven.” It is clearly a first draft, and although subsequent corrections and additions were made, the essay was apparently never expanded or perfected for publication. Nevertheless, the essential criticisms are clear. They are here synopsized according...