Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/48

28 only that he might extend the knowledge already gained through a microscope. Lowell said of him:

"He combines in a very remarkable manner two faculties which are seldom found united; a power of influencing the mind of the reader by the impalpable shadows of mystery, and a minuteness of detail which does not leave a pin or a button unnoticed."

But Lowell was speaking of Poe, the artist; he did not know that Poe, the man, was as minutely observant and retentive as Poe, the weaver of narrative spells. In a letter to Mrs. M. L. Shew, who had asked him to make some art purchases for her, Poe writes:

"During my first call at your house after my Virginia's death, I noticed with so much pleasure the large painting over the piano, which is a masterpiece indeed; and I noticed the size of all your paintings, the scrolls instead of set figures of the drawing-room carpet, the soft effect of the window shades, also the crimson and gold...... I was charmed to see the harp and piano uncovered. The pictures of Raphael and the 'The Cavalier' I shall never forget their softness and beauty! The guitar with the blue ribbon, music-stand and antique jars!"

There are two room interiors that always recur to me as I try to make clear in my own mind the difference between Poe, the artist, and Poe, the man. It must be remembered that Poe's philosophy of art impelled him to beauty plus strangeness. This element of the strange, the eerie, the arrestive-because-not-seen-before, is present in all of his art creations. It is