Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/245

 THE POET 225 �And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is �dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on �the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the �floor �Shall be lifted nevermore! �ULALUME A BALLAD ( 1847) �["It is not, however, in The Bells or in The Raven, marvellous as are these tours de force, that we see the essential greatness of Poe revealed," says Gosse. "The best of his poems are those in which he deals less boisterously with the sentiment of mystery. During the last months of his unhappy life, he com- posed three lyrics which, from a technical point of view, must be regarded not only as the most interest- ing which he wrote, but as those which have had the most permanent effect upon subsequent literature, not only in England merely ^ but in France. These are Ulalume, Annabel Lee, For Annie" (Contemporary Review, February, 1909. The article is reprinted in Some Diversions of a Man of Letters, 1919)'. "Ula- lume," says Louis P. Betz, one of the best German students of Poe, "is nothing less than the masterpiece of the new symbolic poetry, especially to the younger generation opposed to Zola" (Studien zur vergleich- enden Literatur-geschichte der neueren Zeit, 1902). The simplest interpretation of the poem is the best: It is the anniversary night of the burial of Mrs. Poe. The poet is in communion with himself, with his sub- conscious or subliminal self. He wanders along the well-worn pathway to the grave and, momentarily forgetful of his grief, feels the call of peace and ��� �