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The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe
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THE
COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS
OF
EDGAR ALLAN POE
BY JOHN H. INGRAM
PREFACE.
In placing before the public this collection of Edgar Poe's poetical
works, it is requisite to point out in what respects it differs from,
and is superior to, the numerous collections which have preceded it.
Until recently, all editions, whether American or English, of Poe's
poems have been 'verbatim' reprints of the first posthumous
collection, published at New York in 1850.
In 1874 I began drawing attention to the fact that unknown and
unreprinted poetry by Edgar Poe was in existence. Most, if not all, of
the specimens issued in my articles have since been reprinted by
different editors and publishers, but the present is the first
occasion on which all the pieces referred to have been garnered into
one sheaf. Besides the poems thus alluded to, this volume will be
found to contain many additional pieces and extra stanzas, nowhere
else published or included in Poe's works. Such verses have been
gathered from printed or manuscript sources during a research
extending over many years.
In addition to the new poetical matter included in this volume,
attention should, also, be solicited on behalf of the notes, which
will be found to contain much matter, interesting both from
biographical and bibliographical points of view.
JOHN H. INGRAM.
CONTENTS.
MEMOIR
POEMS OF LATER LIFE: Dedication Preface The Raven The Bells Ulalume To
Helen Annabel Lee A Valentine An Enigma To my Mother For Annie To
F---- To Frances S. Osgood Eldorado Eulalie A Dream within a Dream To
Marie Louise (Shew) To the Same The City in the Sea The Sleeper,
Bridal Ballad Notes
POEMS OF MANHOOD: Lenore To one in Paradise The Coliseum The Haunted
Palace The Conqueror Worm Silence Dreamland To Zante Hymn Notes
SCENES FROM "POLITIAN" Note
POEMS OF YOUTH: Introduction (1831) To Science Al Aaraaf Tamerlane To
Helen The Valley of Unrest Israfel To----("I heed not that my earthly
lot") To----("The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see") To the River----
Song Spirits of the Dead A Dream Romance Fairyland The Lake Evening
Star Imitation "The Happiest Day," Hymn. Translation from the Greek
Dreams "In Youth I have known one" A Paean Notes
DOUBTFUL POEMS: Alone To Isadore The Village Street The Forest Reverie
Notes
PROSE POEMS: The Island of the Fay The Power of Words The Colloquy of
Monos and Una The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion Shadow--A Parable
Silence--A Fable
ESSAYS: The Poetic Principle The Philosophy of Composition Old English
Poetry
MEMOIR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE.
During the last few years every incident in the life of Edgar Poe has
been subjected to microscopic investigation. The result has not been
altogether satisfactory. On the one hand, envy and prejudice have
magnified every blemish of his character into crime, whilst on the
other, blind admiration would depict him as far "too good for human
nature's daily food." Let us endeavor to judge him impartially,
granting that he was as a mortal subject to the ordinary weaknesses of
mortality, but that he was tempted sorely, treated badly, and suffered
deeply.
The poet's ancestry and parentage are chiefly interesting as
explaining some of the complexities of his character. His father,
David Poe, was of Anglo-Irish extraction. Educated for the Bar, he
elected to abandon it for the stage. In one of his tours through the
chief towns of the United States he met and married a young actress,
Elizabeth Arnold, member of an English family distinguished for its
musical talents. As an actress, Elizabeth Poe acquired some
reputation, but became even better known for her domestic virtues. In
those days the United States afforded little scope for dramatic
energy, so it is not surprising to find that when her husband died,
after a few years of married life, the young widow had a vain struggle
to maintain herself and three little ones, William Henry, Edgar, and
Rosalie. Before her premature death, in December, 1811, the poet's
mother had been reduced to the dire necessity of living on the charity
of her neighbors.
Edgar, the second child of David and Elizabeth Poe, was born at
Boston, in the United States, on the 19th of January, 1809. Upon his
mother's death at Richmond, Virginia, Edgar was adopted by a wealthy
Scotch merchant, John Allan. Mr. Allan, who had married an American
lady and settled in Virginia, was childless. He therefore took
naturally to the brilliant and beautiful little boy, treated him as
his son, and made him take his own surname. Edgar Allan, as he was now
styled, after some elementary tuition in Richmond, was taken to
England by his adopted parents, and, in 1816, placed at the Manor
House School, Stoke-Newington.
Under the Rev. Dr. Bransby, the future poet spent a lustrum of his
life neither unprofitably nor, apparently, ungenially. Dr. Bransby,
who is himself so quaintly portrayed in Poe's tale of 'William
Wilson', described "Edgar Allan," by which name only he knew the lad,
as "a quick and clever boy," who "would have been a very good boy had
he not been spoilt by his parents," meaning, of course, the Allans.
They "allowed him an extravagant amount of pocket-money, which enabled
him to get into all manner of mischief. Still I liked the boy," added
the tutor, "but, poor fellow, his parents spoiled him."
Poe has described some aspects of his school days in his oft cited
story of 'William Wilson'. Probably there is the usual amount of
poetic exaggeration in these reminiscences, but they are almost the
only record we have of that portion of his career and, therefore,
apart from their literary merits, are on that account deeply
interesting. The description of the sleepy old London suburb, as it
was in those days, is remarkably accurate, but the revisions which the
story of 'William Wilson' went through before it reached its present
perfect state caused many of the author's details to deviate widely
from their original correctness. His schoolhouse in the earliest draft
was truthfully described as an "old, irregular, and cottage-built"
dwelling, and so it remained until its destruction a few years ago.
The 'soi-disant' William Wilson, referring to those bygone happy days
spent in the English academy, says,
"The teeming brain of childhood requires no external world of incident
to occupy or amuse it. The morning's awakening, the nightly summons to
bed; the connings, the recitations, the periodical half-holidays and
perambulations, the playground, with its broils, its pastimes, its
intrigues--these, by a mental sorcery long forgotten, were made to
involve a wilderness of sensation, a world of rich incident, a
universe of varied emotion, of excitement the most passionate and
spirit-stirring, _'Oh, le bon temps, que ce siecle de fer!'"_
From this world of boyish imagination Poe was called to his adopted
parents' home in the United States. He returned to America in 1821,
and was speedily placed in an academy in Richmond, Virginia, in which
city the Allans continued to reside. Already well grounded in the
elementary processes of education, not without reputation on account
of his European residence, handsome, proud, and regarded as the heir
of a wealthy man, Poe must have been looked up to with no little
respect by his fellow pupils. He speedily made himself a prominent
position in the school, not only by his classical attainments, but by
his athletic feats--accomplishments calculated to render him a leader
among lads.
"In the simple school athletics of those days, when a gymnasium had
not been heard of, he was 'facile princeps',"
is the reminiscence of his fellow pupil, Colonel T. L. Preston. Poe he
remembers as
"a swift runner, a wonderful leaper, and, what was more rare, a boxer,
with some slight training.... He would allow the strongest boy in the
school to strike him with full force in the chest. He taught me the
secret, and I imitated him, after my measure. It was to inflate the
lungs to the uttermost, and at the moment of receiving the blow to
exhale the air. It looked surprising, and was, indeed, a little rough;
but with a good breast-bone, and some resolution, it was not difficult
to stand it. For swimming he was noted, being in many of his athletic
proclivities surprisingly like Byron in his youth."
In one of his feats Poe only came off second best.
"A challenge to a foot race," says Colonel Preston, "had been passed
between the two classical schools of the city; we selected Poe as our
champion. The race came off one bright May morning at sunrise, in the
Capitol Square. Historical truth compels me to add that on this
occasion our school was beaten, and we had to pay up our small bets.
Poe ran well, but his competitor was a long-legged, Indian-looking
fellow, who would have outstripped Atalanta without the help of the
golden apples."
"In our Latin exercises in school," continues the colonel, "Poe was
among the first--not first without dispute. We had competitors who
fairly disputed the palm, especially one, Nat Howard, afterwards known
as one of the ripest scholars in Virginia, and distinguished also as a
profound lawyer. If Howard was less brilliant than Poe, he was far
more studious; for even then the germs of waywardness were developing
in the nascent poet, and even then no inconsiderable portion of his
time was given to versifying. But if I put Howard as a Latinist on a
level with Poe, I do him full justice."
"Poe," says the colonel, "was very fond of the Odes of Horace, and
repeated them so often in my hearing that I learned by sound the words
of many before I understood their meaning. In the lilting rhythm of
the Sapphics and Iambics, his ear, as yet untutored in more
complicated harmonies, took special delight. Two odes, in particular,
have been humming in my ear all my life since, set to the tune of his
recitation:
_'Jam satis terris nivis atque dirce Grandinis misit Pater, et
rubente,'_
And
_'Non ebur neque aureum Mea renidet in dono lacu ar,_' etc.
"I remember that Poe was also a very fine French scholar. Yet, with
all his superiorities, he was not the master spirit nor even the
favorite of the school. I assign, from my recollection, this place to
Howard. Poe, as I recall my impressions now, was self-willed,
capricious, inclined to be imperious, and, though of generous
impulses, not steadily kind, nor even amiable; and so what he would
exact was refused to him. I add another thing which had its influence,
I am sure. At the time of which I speak, Richmond was one of the most
aristocratic cities on this side of the Atlantic.... A school is, of
its nature, democratic; but still boys will unconsciously bear about
the odor of their fathers' notions, good or bad. Of Edgar Poe," who
had then resumed his parental cognomen, "it was known that his parents
had been players, and that he was dependent upon the bounty that is
bestowed upon an adopted son. All this had the effect of making the
boys decline his leadership; and, on looking back on it since, I fancy
it gave him a fierceness he would otherwise not have had."
This last paragraph of Colonel Preston's recollections cast a
suggestive light upon the causes which rendered unhappy the lad's
early life and tended to blight his prospective hopes. Although mixing
with members of the best families of the province, and naturally
endowed with hereditary and native pride,--fostered by the indulgence
of wealth and the consciousness of intellectual superiority,--Edgar
Poe was made to feel that his parentage was obscure, and that he
himself was dependent upon the charity and caprice of an alien by
blood. For many lads these things would have had but little meaning,
but to one of Poe's proud temperament it must have been a source of
constant torment, and all allusions to it gall and wormwood. And Mr.
Allan was not the man to wean Poe from such festering fancies: as a
rule he was proud of the handsome and talented boy, and indulged him
in all that wealth could purchase, but at other times he treated him
with contumely, and made him feel the bitterness of his position.
Still Poe did maintain his leading position among the scholars at that
Virginian academy, and several still living have favored us with
reminiscences of him. His feats in swimming to which Colonel Preston
has alluded, are quite a feature of his youthful career. Colonel Mayo
records one daring performance in natation which is thoroughly
characteristic of the lad. One day in mid-winter, when standing on the
banks of the James River, Poe dared his comrade into jumping in, in
order to swim to a certain point with him. After floundering about in
the nearly frozen stream for some time, they reached the piles upon
which Mayo's Bridge was then supported, and there attempted to rest
and try to gain the shore by climbing up the log abutment to the
bridge. Upon reaching the bridge, however, they were dismayed to find
that its plank flooring overlapped the abutment by several feet, and
that it was impossible to ascend it. Nothing remained for them but to
let go their slippery hold and swim back to the shore. Poe reached the
bank in an exhausted and benumbed condition, whilst Mayo was rescued
by a boat just as he was succumbing. On getting ashore Poe was seized
with a violent attack of vomiting, and both lads were ill for several
weeks.
Alluding to another quite famous swimming feat of his own, the poet
remarked, "Any 'swimmer in the falls' in my days would have swum the
Hellespont, and thought nothing of the matter. I swam from Ludlam's
Wharf to Warwick (six miles), in a hot June sun, against one of the
strongest tides ever known in the river. It would have been a feat
comparatively easy to swim twenty miles in still water. I would not
think much," Poe added in a strain of exaggeration not unusual with
him, "of attempting to swim the British Channel from Dover to Calais."
Colonel Mayo, who had tried to accompany him in this performance, had
to stop on the way, and says that Poe, when he reached the goal,
emerged from the water with neck, face, and back blistered. The facts
of this feat, which was undertaken for a wager, having been
questioned, Poe, ever intolerant of contradiction, obtained and
published the affidavits of several gentlemen who had witnessed it.
They also certified that Poe did not seem at all fatigued, and that he
walked back to Richmond immediately after the performance.
The poet is generally remembered at this part of his career to have
been slight in figure and person, but to have been well made, active,
sinewy, and graceful. Despite the fact that he was thus noted among
his schoolfellows and indulged at home, he does not appear to have
been in sympathy with his surroundings. Already dowered with the "hate
of hate, the scorn of scorn," he appears to have made foes both among
those who envied him and those whom, in the pride of intellectuality,
he treated with pugnacious contempt. Beneath the haughty exterior,
however, was a warm and passionate heart, which only needed
circumstance to call forth an almost fanatical intensity of affection.
A well-authenticated instance of this is thus related by Mrs. Whitman:
"While at the academy in Richmond, he one day accompanied a schoolmate
to his home, where he saw, for the first time, Mrs. Helen Stannard,
the mother of his young friend. This lady, on entering the room, took
his hands and spoke some gentle and gracious words of welcome, which
so penetrated the sensitive heart of the orphan boy as to deprive him
of the power of speech, and for a time almost of consciousness itself.
He returned home in a dream, with but one thought, one hope in life
--to hear again the sweet and gracious words that had made the
desolate world so beautiful to him, and filled his lonely heart with
the oppression of a new joy. This lady afterwards became the confidant
of all his boyish sorrows, and hers was the one redeeming influence
that saved and guided him in the earlier days of his turbulent and
passionate youth."
When Edgar was unhappy at home, which, says his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, "was
very often the case, he went to Mrs. Stannard for sympathy, for
consolation, and for advice." Unfortunately, the sad fortune which so
frequently thwarted his hopes ended this friendship. The lady was
overwhelmed by a terrible calamity, and at the period when her guiding
voice was most requisite, she fell a prey to mental alienation. She
died, and was entombed in a neighboring cemetery, but her poor boyish
admirer could not endure to think of her lying lonely and forsaken in
her vaulted home, so he would leave the house at night and visit her
tomb. When the nights were drear, "when the autumnal rains fell, and
the winds wailed mournfully over the graves, he lingered longest, and
came away most regretfully."
The memory of this lady, of this "one idolatrous and purely ideal
love" of his boyhood, was cherished to the last. The name of Helen
frequently recurs in his youthful verses, "The Paean," now first
included in his poetical works, refers to her; and to her he inscribed
the classic and exquisitely beautiful stanzas beginning "Helen, thy
beauty is to me."
Another important item to be noted in this epoch of his life is that
he was already a poet. Among his schoolfellows he appears to have
acquired some little reputation as a writer of satirical verses; but
of his poetry, of that which, as he declared, had been with him "not a
purpose, but a passion," he probably preserved the secret, especially
as we know that at his adoptive home poesy was a forbidden thing. As
early as 1821 he appears to have essayed various pieces, and some of
these were ultimately included in his first volume. With Poe poetry
was a personal matter--a channel through which the turbulent passions
of his heart found an outlet. With feelings such as were his, it came
to pass, as a matter of course, that the youthful poet fell in love.
His first affair of the heart is, doubtless, reminiscently portrayed
in what he says of his boyish ideal, Byron. This passion, he remarks,
"if passion it can properly be called, was of the most thoroughly
romantic, shadowy, and imaginative character. It was born of the hour,
and of the youthful necessity to love. It had no peculiar regard to
the person, or to the character, or to the reciprocating affection...
Any maiden, not immediately and positively repulsive," he deems would
have suited the occasion of frequent and unrestricted intercourse with
such an imaginative and poetic youth. "The result," he deems, "was not
merely natural, or merely probable; it was as inevitable as destiny
itself."
Between the lines may be read the history of his own love. "The Egeria
of _his_ dreams--the Venus Aphrodite that sprang in full and supernal
loveliness from the bright foam upon the storm-tormented ocean of
_his_ thoughts," was a little girl, Elmira Royster, who lived with her
father in a house opposite to the Allans in Richmond. The young people
met again and again, and the lady, who has only recently passed away,
recalled Edgar as "a beautiful boy," passionately fond of music,
enthusiastic and impulsive, but with prejudices already strongly
developed. A certain amount of love-making took place between the
young people, and Poe, with his usual passionate energy, ere he left
home for the University had persuaded his fair inamorata to engage
herself to him. Poe left home for the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville, in the beginning of 1825. lie wrote frequently to
Miss Royster, but her father did not approve of the affair, and, so
the story runs, intercepted the correspondence, until it ceased. At
seventeen, Elmira became the bride of a Mr. Shelton, and it was not
until some time afterwards that Poe discovered how it was his
passionate appeals had failed to elicit any response from the object
of his youthful affection.
Poe's short university career was in many respects a repetition of his
course at the Richmond Academy. He became noted at Charlottesville
both for his athletic feats and his scholastic successes. He entered
as a student on February 1,1826, and remained till the close of the
second session in December of that year.
"He entered the schools of ancient and modern languages, attending the
lectures on Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian. I was a member
of the last three classes," says Mr. William Wertenbaker, the recently
deceased librarian, "and can testify that he was tolerably regular in
his attendance, and a successful student, having obtained distinction
at the final examination in Latin and French, and this was at that
time the highest honor a student could obtain. The present regulations
in regard to degrees had not then been adopted. Under existing
regulations, he would have graduated in the two languages above-named,
and have been entitled to diplomas."
These statements of Poe's classmate are confirmed by Dr. Harrison,
chairman of the Faculty, who remarks that the poet was a great
favorite with his fellow-students, and was noted for the remarkable
rapidity with which he prepared his recitations and for their
accuracy, his translations from the modern languages being especially
noteworthy.
Several of Poe's classmates at Charlottesville have testified to his
"noble qualities" and other good endowments, but they remember that
his "disposition was rather retiring, and that he had few intimate
associates." Mr. Thomas Boiling, one of his fellow-students who has
favored us with reminiscences of him, says:
"I was 'acquainted', with him, but that is about all. My impression
was, and is, that no one could say that he 'knew' him. He wore a
melancholy face always, and even his smile--for I do not ever remember
to have seen him laugh--seemed to be forced. When he engaged sometimes
with others in athletic exercises, in which, so far as high or long
jumping, I believe he excelled all the rest, Poe, with the same ever
sad face, appeared to participate in what was amusement to the others
more as a task than sport."
Poe had no little talent for drawing, and Mr. John Willis states that
the walls of his college rooms were covered with his crayon sketches,
whilst Mr. Boiling mentions, in connection with the poet's artistic
facility, some interesting incidents. The two young men had purchased
copies of a handsomely-illustrated edition of Byron's poems, and upon
visiting Poe a few days after this purchase, Mr. Bolling found him
engaged in copying one of the engravings with crayon upon his
dormitory ceiling. He continued to amuse himself in this way from time
to time until he had filled all the space in his room with life-size
figures which, it is remembered by those who saw them, were highly
ornamental and well executed.