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

day"; "in the autumn of the year"; "when the clouds hung oppressively low"; "singularly dreary tract," etc., and also the iteration of the feeling evoked in the narrator, as expressed in terms like "insufferable gloom"; "utter depression of soul"; "unredeemed dreariness of thought." Then let him apply the same method to the study of the piece as a structure; and he will perceive something of the mechanics of Poe's masterpiece, as he clearly recognizes its marvelous effect.

Of the poems, The Raven, of course, calls for our first attention. Poe's article on The Philosophy of Composition will be found helpfully suggestive in studying the poem, although no one accepts seriously all that the author says regarding its composition. At least all of the twelve poems named in this text should be read, and the uniformity of tone and theme be noted.

The standard edition of Poe's Complete Works is the Virginia Edition, 17 vols., edited by James A. Harrison (Crowell, 1902). The Works, in 10 vols., edited by E. C. Stedman and G. E. Woodberry, is also authoritative. The latest full biography is J. A. Harrison's Life and Letters of Edgar Allan Poe (1903). G. E. Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe (American Men of Letters Series) is the best critical biography. A briefer life of Poe by W. P. Trent, in the English Men of Letters Series, is announced. The sections upon Poe in Trent's American Literature, Richardson's American Literature, Wendell's Literary History of America, and Stedman's Poets of America are valuable for reference.

"At no period of my life was I ever what men call intemperate. I never was in the habit of intoxication. . . . But for a brief period, while I resided in Richmond, and edited the Messenger I certainly did give way, at long intervals, to the temptation held out on all sides by the spirit of Southern conviviality. My sensitive temperament could not stand an excitement which was an everyday matter to my companions. In short, it sometimes happened that I was completely intoxicated. For some days after each excess I was invariably confined to bed. But it is now quite four years since I have abandoned every kind of alcoholic drink -- four years, with the exception of a single deviation."

This letter is quoted in full in Woodberry's Edgar Allan Poe.