Gunnison Valley News | 1919-09-19 | Page 4 | Poetry and Plagiarism

Poetry and Plagiarism. After Longfellow's poem "Excelsior," . first appeared it was copied all over the country In the various journals. It was not long in reaching England, where it met with the same enthusiastic enthusiast-ic reception. Longfellow, in his diary of September 1, 1S71, notes: "I teceived from Mr. Henry Gersoni today to-day a Hebrew translation of 'Excel-j 'Excel-j sior.' " In the writing of "Excelsior," Long-iffllow Long-iffllow was charged by a number of I critics with plagiarism. One of these claimed that the poet had adopted lines j from Brainard's poem, "The Mocking Pird," but to this the poet replied: "Now, when in 'Excelsior' I said 'A voice fell like a falling star' Brainard's Brain-ard's poem was not in my mini! nor " had I ever read it. Of a truth, one cannot strike a spade into the soil of Parnassus without disturbing the bones of some dead poet." Detroit Free Press.