Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/52

32 met but he had passed him on the street and had heard him speak. Is there anywhere such a picture of Bryant as Poe has drawn in this sketch?

"He is now fifty-two years of age. In height, he is perhaps five feet nine. His frame is rather robust. His features are large but thin. His countenance is sallow, nearly bloodless. His eyes are piercing gray, deep set, with large projecting eyebrows. His mouth is wide and massive, the expression of the smile hard, cold—even sardonic. The forehead is broad, with prominent organs of ideality; a good deal bald; the hair thin and grayish, as are also the whiskers, which he wears in a simple style. His bearing is quite distinguished, full of the aristocracy of intellect. In general, he looks in better health than before his last visit to England. He seems active—physically and morally energetic. His dress is plain to the extreme of simplicity, although of late there is a certain degree of Anglicism about it.

"In character no man stands more loftily than Bryant. The peculiarly melancholy expression of his countenance has caused him to be accused of harshness, or coldness of heart. Never was there a greater mistake. His soul is charity itself, in all respects generous and noble. His manners are undoubtedly reserved."

In the letter that Poe wrote to Mrs. Clemm as soon as he and Virginia had arrived in New York from Philadelphia there is a solicitous affection that can not be paraphrased. There is a pathos, too, beyond the reach of conscious art. But is there not also a