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

instruments of horrible suggestiveness which are here employed. It is no wonder that one's flesh creeps as he reads -- that was in the design.

Poe had little of the sense of humor. He wrote, however, a number of extravaganzas with intent to make them humorous. In one, The Devil in the Belfry, he succeeded fairly. Another phase of his fancy is discovered in two beautiful landscape pictures, masterpieces of natural description, The Domain of Arnheim and Landor's Cottage, pure idealizations of romantic scenery worthy of a poet's dream.

As a Poet.

If the volume of Poe's verse is small, there is an unusual proportion of compositions that attain the perfection of form. The best of them are exquisite embodiments of Poe's own theories regarding his art. Poetry and music were allied in his mind, the aim in both to produce an impression. The poetical effect, he said, could be prolonged only to a certain limit; and that he placed at about one hundred lines. He had no sympathy with the idea that poetry should inculcate a moral; this idea he termed "the heresy of the Didactic," and soundly rated the New England poets for their inclination so to write. Poetry he defined as "the rhythmical creation of beauty." The poetic principle manifests itself "in an elevating excitement of the soul." In the service of beauty, Poe employed his art. We can easily name the titles of his most effective poems; they are the Song to Ligeia (in Al Aaraaf), the first To Helen, Israfel, The City in the Sea, The Coliseum, The Haunted Palace, The Conqueror Worm, Ulalume, For Annie, The Raven, The Bells, and Annabel Lee.

Poe's melodies are haunting ones. Sonorous words play an important part in the mechanics of his composition. Repetition, sometimes in the form of assonance, as in the line, --

"From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime;"¹

sometimes in the refrain, so effectively employed in The Raven; sometimes in the recurrence of the identical word, as in Dream-Land and in Ulalume, is used with marked musical effect. Poe makes artful use of melodious names, like Auber, Eldorado, Israfel, Ulalume, Lenore. There is wonderful charm in the rhythmic movement of Poe's verse, and there is also, for most readers, a charm in that omnipresent melancholy which pervades his poems. So characteristic is this last quality that Poe has been described -- "not as a single-poem poet, but the poet of a single mood."²

Weird, mystical, unearthly,

"Out of Space -- out of Time,"

these compositions succeed in fulfilling the purpose of their author; they impress the mind with ideas of supernal beauty. They speak no message of hope or inspiration, they teach no lesson. In Poe's conception of his art, the poet as prophet had no place.

If Poe had a literary master, it was the author of Christabel and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Coleridge, more than any other poet, taught the author of Israfel and The Raven the secret of melodious verse and the fascination of the weird.

Suggestions for Reading.

Of Poe's tales, selections should be made so as to include the several types. The following will serve for the purpose: A Descent into the Maelstrom, The Gold Bug, The Murders of the Rue Morgue, William Wilson, The Fall of the House of Usher, Ligeia, Landor's Cottage, The Devil in the Belfry. These eight tales are fairly representative of Poe's best work in romance; having read these, the average reader will not need urging to increase the list. The student should make a study of the very impressive tale The Fall of the House of Usher. Let him examine, word by word, the careful composition of the introductory paragraph, heedfully noting the cumulative effect of the descriptive phrases, like: "dull, dark and soundless