It was a gift that, to many, seemed to lack rhyme or reason. In November 2002, Poetry magazine announced that Ruth Lilly, heiress to the Eli Lilly pharmaceutical fortune, would give the publication roughly $100 million, the largest single donation ever to a literary organization.

The small but venerable publication was created in 1912 by Harriet Monroe "to print the best poetry written today, in whatever style, genre, or approach," and had published the first important work of many major modernist poets, including Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, and T.S. Eliot. But for many Americans, the front-page headlines were their first introduction to the influential poetry publication.

What would a magazine with a circulation of just 10,000 do with such a fortune, people asked. Can poets and money really mix, journalists wondered.

More than a year after the announcement, Poetry is still struggling to answer the first question. And culture mavens are anxiously waiting for an answer to the second.

Poetry's first order of business was to form a foundation to satisfy IRS regulations. But later developments seemed not just to suggest growing pains but to hint at the old adage that money ruins everything. Joseph Parisi, who had edited Poetry for 20 years, was named executive director of publications and programs of the new Poetry Foundation in May 2003, but by summer's end, he had resigned. The official reason: He wants to pursue his own writing projects.

Then the foundation filed a lawsuit against a bank in Indiana for mismanagement of two of its trusts. The amount of the loss, resulting from an ill-timed sale of Lilly stock, will not be known for some time, says the foundation's lawyer, Rich Campbell, of Mayer, Brown, Rowe, and Maw in Chicago.

Perhaps most troubling to many in the literary world was the fact that Poetry magazine seemed to have been eclipsed by its new foundation. These fears have been fueled by recent media reports that highlighted the organization's struggles and its move from an office of 875 square feet to one that was more than five times as large.

"As time has passed, it does seem a possibility that the results of the gift will not be able to overcome this ancient moral, which is that too much money brings out the worst in people," says Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States.

"For me what's important is that the magazine continue," adds Mr. Collins, who has been a frequent contributor to Poetry. "The foundation is rather amorphous, but the magazine has the reality of being the oldest poetry magazine in the world, having this deep history and giving exposure to such a wide range of American poets."

Debrorah Cummins, chair of the foundation's 22-member board of trustees, says Poetry's readers have nothing to worry about. "The board is determined to make sure that Poetry magazine remains the crown jewel [of the foundation]."

And she insists that events thus far do not prove the adage that poets and money don't mix.

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