“To Zara“

   Poem (42 lines); written on August 31, 1922. First published in SL1.164–65 (in a letter to Maurice W.Moe, [September] 1922).

   The poem is a hoax: it is purportedly written by Poe (in one ms. HPL dates it to 1829) and is an imitation/parody of Poe’s numerous and extravagant poems to women (this one is dedicated to “Miss Sarah Longhurst”). HPL wrote it as a joke on Alfred Galpin, who generally regarded HPL’s poetry with disdain. HPL and Frank Belknap Long claimed that they had found the poem in the possession of an ancient Maine man who had known Poe. Galpin, although not believing this story, thought the poem was copied from the work of some obscure nineteenth-century poet, perhaps Arthur O’Shaughnessy.