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"Morning on the Wissahiccon" (also called "The Elk") is an 1844 work by Edgar
Allan Poe describing the natural beauty of Wissahickon Creek, which flows into the
Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It borders between being a short story and a travel
essay.
Contents
Overview
Publication history
Analysis
References
External links
Poe refers to the writing of actress Fanny Kemble in this essay, saying it was she who first brought the beautiful area to people's
attention in her "droll book",Journal, in 1835.
Publication history
The work was first published as "Morning on the Wissahiccon" in the annual The
Opal: A Pure Gift for the Holy Days in 1844.[1] Like Poe's previous "The Island of
the Fay," it was originally a "plate article," a work written specifically to accompany
an engraving. The original engraving by John G. Chapman depicted an elk in an
idyllic nature setting.[2]
The Opal was an annual gift book edited by Nathaniel Parker Willis. Established by
Rufus Wilmot Griswold, it was published in New York by John C. Riker.
He then notices an elk near a precipice. He assumes it is a wild animal. He later observes, however, that a man moves towards it with
carrying salt and a halter. He is disappointed to discover the elk is a domesticated pet.
References
1. Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe, A to Z. Checkmark Books, 2001. p. 79
2. Renza, Louis A. "Ut Pictura Poe: Poetic Politics in 'The Island of the Fay' and 'Morning on the Wissahickon'," as
collected in The American Face of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Shawn Rosenheim and Stephen Rachman. Baltimore:
The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. p. 309ISBN 0-8018-5025-8
3. Quinn, Arthur Hobson.Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
ISBN 0-8018-5730-9 p. 395
External links
Text of Morning on the Wissahiccon
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