Page:Edgar Allan Poe - a centenary tribute.pdf/56

 and greater advantage over their rivals. The comparatively small bulk of Poe's poetry and of his best tales may prevent our ranking him with certain writers of more copious genius, but this very costiveness of genius may stand him in good stead centuries hence when some of his chief competitors are really known only as Elizabethan poets like Daniel and Drayton are now known by a selection or two in the anthologies.

No—while I have no desire to pose as a prophet, I think I am neither rash nor partisan in pointing out the advantages with which Poe seems to me to be beginning his second century. As I have said elsewhere, he claims attention in four ways. First through his interesting, pathetic life. Secondly through his criticism and his miscellaneous prose, which is of great importance in the history of the development of our literature, is obviously the product of an exceptionally clear and acute mind, has been found valuable by students of the art of fiction, and is based upon aesthetic ideals and a definite artistic theory, sincere and intelligent though lacking in catholicity and in a sound, historical sense. Thirdly, through his fiction, which is probably unsurpassed in its peculiar kind. He is a master of the ratiocinative tale, including the detective story, which he may be said to have originated. In tales of compelling horror, of haunting mystery, of weirdly ethereal beauty, of tragic situation, of morbid analysis of conscience, he has had no clear superior, and in his attempts at the grotesque he has shown power and versatility, though in the opinion of some, little true humor. It is usual to say that his stories are remote from life; but it is certainly true that they deal