EDGAR ALLAN POE
AN APPRECIATION
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of quot;nevernever morequot;
THIS stanza from quot;The Ravenquot; was recommended by James Russell Lowell as an inscription upon the Baltimore monument which marks the resting place of Edgar Allan Poe, the most interesting and original figure in American letters. And, to signify that peculiar musical quality of Poe39;s genius which inthralls every reader Mr. Lowell suggested this additional verse, from the quot;Haunted Palacequot;:
And all with pearl and ruby glowing
Was the fair palace door,
Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing,
And sparkling ever more,
A troop of Echoes, whose sweet duty
Was but to sing,
In voices of surpassing beauty,
The wit and wisdom of their king.
Born in poverty at Boston, January 19 1809, dying under painful circumstances at Baltimore, October 7, 1849, his whole literary career of scarcely fifteen years a pitiful struggle for mere subsistence, his memory malignantly misrepresented by his earliest biographer, Griswold, how completely has truth at last routed falsehood and how magnificently has Poe come into his own, For quot;The Raven,quot; first published in 1845, and, within a few months, read, recited and parodied wherever the english language was spoken, the halfstarved poet received 10 Less than a year later his brother poet, N. P. Willis, issued this touching appeal to the admirers of genius on behalf of the neglected author, his dying wife and her devoted mother, then living under very straitened circumstances in a little cottage at Fordham, N. Y.:
quot;Here is one of the finest scholars, one of the most original men of genius, and one of the most industrious of the literary profession of our country, whose temporary suspension of labor, from bodily illness, drops him immediately to a level with the common objects of public charity. There is no intermediate stoppingplace, no respectful shelter, where, with the delicacy due to genius and culture, he might secure aid, till, with returning health, he would resume his labors, and his unmortified sense of independence.quot;
And this was the tribute paid by the American public to the master who had given to it such tales of conjuring charm, of witchery and mystery as quot;The Fall of the House of Usherquot; and quot;Ligeiaquot;; such fascinating hoaxes as quot;The Unparalleled Adventure of Hans Pfaall,quot; quot;MSS. Found in a Bottle,quot; quot;A Descent Into a Maelstromquot; and quot;The Balloon Hoaxquot;; such tales of conscience as quot;William Wilson,quot; quot;The Black Catquot; and quot;The Telltale Heart,quot; wherein the retributions of remorse are portrayed with an awful fidelity; such tales of natural beauty as quot;The Island of the Fayquot; and quot;The Domain of Arnheimquot;; such marvellous studies in ratiocination as the quot;Goldbug,quot; quot;The Murders in the Rue Morgue,quot; quot;The Purloined Letterquot; and quot;The Mystery of Marie Roget,quot; the latter, a recital of fact, demonstrating the author39;s wonderful capability of correctly analyzing the mysteries of the human mind; such tales of illusion and banter as quot;The Premature Burialquot; and quot;The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fetherquot;; such bits of extravaganza as quot;The Devil in the Belfryquot; and quot;The Angel of the Oddquot;; such tales of adventure as quot;The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pymquot;; such papers of keen criticism and review as won for Poe the enthusiastic admiration of Charles Dickens, although they made him many enemies among the overpuffed minor American writers so mercilessly exposed by him; such poems of beauty and melody as quot;The Bells,quot; quot;The Haunted Palace,quot; quot;Tamerlane,quot; quot;The City in the Seaquot; and quot;The Raven.quot; What delight for the jaded senses of the reader is this enchanted domain of wonderpieces What an atmosphere of beauty, music, color What resources of imagination, construction, analysis and absolute art