because the poem was first published anonymously, various editions were for many years published both with and without attribution. as a result, it was only in 1859, 36 years after the poem first appeared in print, that henry's family discovered that moore was taking credit for what they believed to be their father's poem. that belief went back many years. around 1807, henry's sons charles and edwin, as well as their neighbor eliza (who would later marry charles) remembered their father's reading the poem to them as his own. following their father's death in 1828, charles claimed to have found a newspaper copy of the poem in his father's desk, and son sidney claimed to have found the original handwritten copy of the poem with its original crossouts.