| Show I ± IlL EDGAR ALLEN POG IIIIII Brief Glance at tho Unhappy Life of the Great Poet HcurleHn ristian Wr1skt In the playground of an oldfashioned I udnghsh school the boy Edgar Allen Poe then in his ninth year first entered that world of day dreams whose wonders he I afterward transcribed so beautifully InI I liSs prose and poetry The school was situated in tha old town of Stoke New Ington I The quaint sleepy village with Its aye g flues shaded by ancient gnarled trees and bordered by fragrant shrubberies and I with Its country stillness broken only by the chime ci the church boll tolling the hour seemed to the boy only a part of the real world and in describing it in after af-ter years lie speaks of the dreamlike and siothlnp inllucuce it had upon his early life The school building also the vii IUCQ parsonage as the master of the school was a clergyman had a similar effect it was a large rambling house whose passages and rooms had a labyrinthine laby-rinthine irregularity which charmed the young student and made him regard it almost as a place of enchantment It had so many nooks and corners in which one I might lese one self ansi dream day dreams out of the books poetry and history his-tory with which it was pretty well Mocked The school room Itself was low vailed ana cell e with oak and nleQ with desks and benches that had been hacked and hewer by generations of boys It was of great size and seemed to Poe the I largest in the world In this room he stuOied mathematics and classics vhilp in the playground outside which was I 4 I EDGAR A POE surrounded by brick walls topped With mortar and broken glass he spent many of his leisure hours taking part in those sports so loved ly the English school boy Beyond the gvourds the boys were al iiwed ony three times in a week twice on fcunday and when they went touch to-uch and once during the vek when guarded by two ushers they were taken a solemn walk through the neighboring Jiells All the rest of life lay within the walls that separated the school from the village streets In this quiet spat Poe tre1t Jive years of his life speaking of them afterward as most happy years and rich in those poetic Influences which gave bias to lus character In his thirteenth year he left England and returned to America with his adopted adopt-ed parents Mr and Mrs Allen of Baltimore Balti-more and spent the next live or six years of his life partly in their beautiful nome and partly at school in Richmond I The parents of Poe had died in his infancy I in-fancy They had both possessed talent his mother having been an actress of considerable repute and from them he inherited gentle and winning manners aid talent for declamation Tvhch combined com-bined with his remarkable personal beauty i beau-ty made him a favorite in the Allen t borne where he wan much petted and caressed ca-ressed The child aJ5r eei1e Interest 1 of his adopted parents and though he Was sometimes Tvlllful and obstinate he never failed in affection To airs Allen especially he always showed a devotion I and gratitude that well repaid her for the low and care she had bestowed upon the crpnan child Though fond of books especially boot cf poetry and loving be alone in some quiet place where he could indulge in the daydreams that formed so large a part of Us life Poe still had the fondness of z healthy boy for athletic sports and Eomo of his feats of strength are still found recorded in tile old newspapers of Baltimore Once on a bet he swam a distance dis-tance of seven miles on the James river against a swift tide In a contest he leaped entyone feet on a level and in other feats of strength he also excelled He wa very fond of animals and was always surrounded by pets which returned re-turned Tils affection with interest and Thich with the flowers he loved to tend ana care for took up many of his leisure hours When lit was seventeen Poe entered the University of Virginia where he remained re-mained not QUIto a year distlngulsnJng after a tWO years struggle with poverty lIe was glad to accept a cadetship at Wcai Point obtained for him through the influence of Mr Allen airs Allen had In 1 the meantime died and in her death Foe who had been 1oEt his best friend one ready to forgive his faults to be i llpve ever In his repentance and to have faith in his promises of amendment Toe was charmed with the life at West Point and in his first enthusiasm decided that a soldiers careur was the most glorious < in the world The hard study the rious I strict discipline the rigid law and order sr of cadet life seemed only admirable and Er > soon stood at the head of his classes But 1c it was impossible that this enthusiasm l enthusi-asm should last long foe was endowed J a nature with the dreamy and artistic by temperament of the poet and discipline and routine could not tall to become in a short time unbearable When the period arrived the prospective life of the soldier lost the charm and be was seized with are a-re to leave the academy and bid a 0 IPj I J Q q o I 0 ac 0 r < jt < JI n i I final farewell to military life It was Impossible Im-possible to do this without the consent of hjs guardian and as Mr Allen refused this Poe was forced to carry his point in his own way This he did by lagging In his studlesTvriting poetry when he should have been solving problems and refusing point blank to obey orders Military discipline dis-cipline could not long brook this Poe was courtmartialed and pleading guilty was discharged from the academy dis graced but happy During his stay there he had published a third edition of his poems containing a number of pieces not included in the other editions It TYUS dedicated to his fellow cadets and was subscribed for by many of the students at the price of two dollars and fifty cents a copy Almost immediately after his departure depart-ure from West Point Poe went to live with his aunt Mrs Clemm and her daughter Virginia who afterward became hIs wife and from this time forward he never seems to have had any serious idea of a career otherwise than literary In Ib32 when be was in his trventyiourth year prizes were offered bv a Baltimore paper for the best short story and best poem that should be presented Among the material offered in competition the judges found a email collection of tales bound np together and written in neat Roman characters These stories were the last ones read by the committee which had about decided that there had been nothing offered worthy the prize and their unmistakable signs of genius were instantly recognized It was decided decid-ed that the prize of one hundred dollars belonged to this author and out of the Aeries the story entitled A Manuscript Found In a Bottle was selected as the prize t tale though all were so excellent that it was dinicult to determine which was best This little volume had been submitted by Poe and when the poetry came to be examined it was found also that the best poem In the collection was his He was riot however awarded the prize for poetry that being given to another an-other competitor whose work the committee com-mittee thought worthy the second prize in view oi the fact that Poe had obtained the first It was in this manner that Poe was introduced in-troduced to the world of literature his previous productions having excited no attention other than that generally given to the work of a clever erratic boy The workmanship of these stories was so tIne and the genius so apparent as to give them a distinct place in American fiction a place to which at that time the promise of Hawthorne pointed Besides the reputation repu-tation and money thus earned the story brought him a staunch friend in the person per-son of Mr Kennedy one of the members of the committee who from that time was ever devoted to the Interests of the young author For the next year Poe was busy with the composition of those beautiful tales which appeared from time to time in the periodicals of the day and which speedIly speedi-ly won him a reputation both In America and Europe He was thus employed on editorial work for different magazines and became known as the first American critic who had made criticisms on art It was his dream at this time to establish estab-lish a magazine of his own and for many I years one project after another with this object In view was tried and abandoned He was never able to < start the magazine I I and felt the disappointment keenly always al-ways Through all his disappointments and he had many he still lived much In that dreamworld which had always been so real to him and much of his best work found there its inspiration His exquisite ex-quisite story of Ligela came to him first in a dream This world so unreal to many was to Poe as real as his actual life Like COleridge in English literature ho had the power of presenting the visions vis-ions which came to him in sleep or in his walking dreams surrounded by their own atmosphere of mystery and unreality thus producing an effect which awed as well as fascinated No other American writer has ever brought from the dream I world such beautiful creations which charm ana mystify at the same time and force the most unimaginative reader to believe for the time in the existence of this elusive realm of paery 1u niatRfse Poes poems hava this same character and found this inspiration in the same Source While engaged in editorial work in New York Poe wrote his first great poem The Raven which was first published under an assumed name It was not until un-til he recited the poem by request at a fathering of the literary workers of New York that his authorship was suspected Immediately afterward the poem was published under his name It was regarded re-garded by critics in England and America Ameri-ca as illustrating the highest poetic genius ge-nius From this time Poe who had hitherto hith-erto been ranked among the best prose writers of his native land now took precedence pre-cedence among the poets It 5s indeed as a poet that he is always thought of first It was during the next five years after the publication of The Haven that he produced the series of remarkable remarka-ble poems that has given him immortal ty The Bells the original draft of which consisted of only eighteen lines is perhaps next to The Kaven the poem po-em that has brought him the most fame But tho number of exquisite shorter poems po-ems which he produced would in themselves them-selves give him the highest rank as a poet Chief among these is the little idyll Annabel Lee which seems almost a transcription of the Ideal love which existed ex-isted between Poe and his young wife While engaged in literary work in New York Poe for the most part resided In the suburb of Fordham in an unpretentious but charming cottage bowered in trees and surrounded by the flower crarden which was the especial pride of the poet J Wci I 2 1 f I I I A CORNElL OF THE MBRA31T himself a a student of the classics and modern languages Upon his return to l Baltimore he had a disagreement with f Inn foster father because of some college debts t05te though Poe was very much In I the wrong ad he refused to admit It and left the house iu a fit oCrfmger and went to live with his aunt Mrs Clumtn He had already published a volume of poems and now being forced to depend upon himself lie issued a second edition But this Virauirht him neither fame nor money and I and his wife Perhaps the happiest days of his life were spent in this quiet place to which he would retire after the business busi-ness or thc day was over and occupy himself with the care of tlie flowers and of the numerous pet birds and animals whlrti were regarded as a part of the family Over this otherwise happy existence hung always the clouds of poverty and sickness his wife having been an invalid for many years It was in this little cot tage at a time when Poes fortunes were at their lowest ebb that his wife died amid poverty so extreme that the family could not even afford a fire to heat the I room In which she lay dying Poe remained I re-mained at Fordham a little over two years after his wifes death leaving it only a few months before his own death in October 143 Poe Is undoubtedly to be ranked among the greatest writers of American literature litera-ture His prose work would grace any literary period his poetry Is alive with the fire and beauty of genius and his criticisms marked a new era in critical crHcal writing In America Twentysix years after his death a monument was erected to his memory in the city of Baltimore mainly through the efforts of the teachers of the public schools some of the most distinguished dil5tngl he men of America were present at the unveiling un-veiling to do honor to the poet whose work was such a noble contribution to the art or his native lan contrIbuton Ti i 4 ih l > J o = |
