Chapter Edgar Allan Poe of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

popular and most influential member of the Knickerbocker group. Willis at once made a place for Poe on his paper, the Evening Mirror. Thus it was that in this paper, in January, 1845, Poe published The Raven. The appearance of this poem -- perhaps the most widely known of all American poems -- gave Poe a national reputation. It was copied in well-nigh every newspaper in the land. Again the future looked bright for one whom people now hailed as the foremost among American poets. The Tales were re- published. All of his poetical compositions that he wished to preserve were collected and published under the title of The Raven, and Other Poems. Moreover he had become in this year, 1845, editor and proprietor of the Broadway Journal. But with the close of the year the Journal was abandoned, and Poe was left with a substantial debt.

Disaster.

In 1846, the family was established in a little cottage of the humblest description at Fordham, now in the borough of the Bronx, then not within the limits of the city. Mrs. Clemm had become -- and not for the first time -- the mainstay of the household. Virginia was dying with consumption. Poe himself was broken in health. Half insane with anxiety and grief, he had lapsed into the old excesses. Before the year closed they were in absolute destitution. The death of Virginia occurred in January, 1847, under conditions too painful to be described.

The End.

The two years which followed were pitiable enough. After the poet had in a measure recovered his shattered health, he employed himself in various efforts without much success. He wrote a long and elaborate essay, which he called Eureka; it was an attempt to explain the existence of the universe. He thought that he had solved the mystery of creation. But these conceptions of his erratic imagination have no scientific value. Of more worth are the poems, written during this period, Ulalume, The Bells, For Annie, and Annabel Lee, -- this last-named ballad a poignant memory of the child-wife, Virginia. In 1849, Poe was again in Richmond, hoping to get aid to establish a new magazine. On the last day of September he departed on his return to New York, and stopped over in Baltimore to see some friends. He was drinking heavily. On the 3d of October -- it being an election day -- Poe was found, unconscious and in wretched plight, in a rear room of a rum-shop, used as a polling-place. Friends were summoned and the unfortunate man was conveyed to a hospital. On the 7th of October, without regaining his senses, he died -- dismally. His last words were: "Lord help my poor soul!" The next morning, five friends of the poet followed his body to its cheerless burial in the old cemetery of Westminster Church.

Personality.

Such in outline is the tragic story of Edgar Allan Poe. To add to these details would be to emphasize its sordid aspects rather than to brighten it. The blighted career, the disastrous climax of his misfortune can excite but one feeling -- a profound pity for this unhappy soul,

"whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore."

Yet over this strange personality critics have contended more fiercely than over any other in our literary annals.¹ At the same time we may say that no American poet lives more vividly in the memory of his countrymen than Edgar Allan Poe; nor is there any other that in the eye of Europe ranks as high as he. Already before his death, French writers had detected in Poe's works a quality that appealed strongly to their artistic sense; his poems and tales were translated into their language, later into Spanish and German also. To the present time, Germany, Spain, and France regard the author of The Raven as the supreme representative of the West in literary art.

Let us look briefly at Poe's actual achievement, remembering -- if in volume his imaginative work appears disappointing -- that he died at forty; and that during the too brief years of his working life he was beset with weaknesses and embarrassed by failures such as occurred in the experience of no other American writer of first rank. His productions fall into three groups: the critical articles, the tales, and the poems.