Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/184

* POE. 150 POE. Poe liail inaiiv oj)|ioi'tuuities, but his tempera- ment niailc it impossible to establish comfortable and permanent working relations. In 1837, when a disastrous financial panic was at its height, he arrived in New York with very ambitious pur- ])Oses, but with no resources. "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon P.vm,'' published the following year, added nothing to his reputation and little to his income. The autumn of ISoS found Poe in Philadelphia, where he wrote two of his most characteristic pieces, "'Silence" and "The Haunted Palace." The poem shows an ethical feeling which no other work from the same hand reveals. Two volumes made up of stories and sketches appeared in 18.30, and contained some of the most original work which America has produced. "The Fall of the House of Usher," "Ligeia," "William Wilson," and "Silence" exhibit Poc's power of invention, vividness of imagination, and skill as an artist at their best; and in perfection of form these prose pieces rank with "Israfel." "To Helen." and "The City in the Sea." To this period belong also those tales of ratiocination which are among the best of their kind and have borne fruit in an abvmdant harvest of similar or imitative stories. "The Gold Bug." "The Pur- loined Letter," "The Mystery of Marie Roget." and "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" are on a lower order of imagination than the tales of fantasy, but they arc marvelous pieces of invention. During this ])criod Poe was imdergoing the tor- ture of uncertainty with regard to his wife, whom he devotedly loved, and who was continu- ously and often desperately ill. Under this strain his power of resistance grew weaker, he yielded more easily and frequently to the craving for stimulants, and his imusual power of concentra- tion gradually relaxed. The position of editor of Graham's Magazine, in which he had revealed editorial ability of a high order, was given up or lost, and in 1844 Poe returned to New York with very little money and with a great sorrow impending in the near future. He was still, however, to achieve some of his most striking successes. In 1845 "The Raven." which gave him his immense popular reputation, appeared, and was followed by "Tlie Bells" and "LTalume." Xo American poems are more widely known, and in none is his mar- velous command of the subtle resources of sound. his magical use of vowels, of repetition, of parallelism, so skillfully used to convey definite and striking elTects. His collected poems were published at this time under the title. The Rarcn. and Other Porms. and in the preface to the col- lection is a piece of autobiography. "Events not to be controlled," he wrote, "have prevented me from making at any time any serious effort in w-hat, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice." He was then living in a cottage at Fordham. near Xew Y'ork; and there, in January. 1847, his wife died, and the poet was prostrated by a long illness. He was cared for by friends and finally recovered a de- gree of strength, but he was really a shat- tered man. He wrote "Eureka: A Prose Poem." marked by his characteristic inventiveness, put the finishing touches on "The Domain of Arn- heim," and delivered a few lectures; but both his mind and his will bore traces of his great suffer- ing. In June. 1840, he went to Richmond, was ill as the result of excesses in Philadelphia, was shown much kindness and recovered something of his old spirit in the capital of Virginia. Late in Septendier he started to return to Xew York. The story of the ne.vt few days will never be clearly told ; but on an afternoon in the week following his departure from Richmond he w'as found in a drinking-place in Haltimore, taken to a hospital in an unconscious condition, and died four days later. Of the three forms of Poe's literary activity his criticism, while of liigh importance at the time, is of least value; his prose tales have taken their place in the literature of the world by reason of their originality of motive and their finished art; while his poetry remains the most distinctive ex- pression of his genius. In two important studies, "The Poetic Primijile" and "The Rationale of Verse," he declared that truth gives expression to the intellect and passion to the heart, while beauty is the language of the soul. Beauty is, there- fore, the highest form of creative activit}'; passion and truth are involved in it, but its chief aim is to produce a definite and convincing im- pression of its own nature by stimulating the imagination. He defined poetry as "the rhythmi- cal creation of beauty," and laid down the law that beauty is essential to lyrical perfection in the phrase "a long poem does not exist." He also held that a marked quality of metre or rhythm ought to characterize all verse. BlBLiOGR.PHT. Numerous editions of Poe's work have appeared since his death. That of Griswold (2d ed., 4 vols.. New York. 1856) is prefaced by a biography which later writers con- sider prejudiced to the point of calumny; and the biography in the Stoddard edition (G vols., new ed.. New Y'ork, 1805), while deprecating Griswold's extreme view, is also biased. The Diamond edition (Boston, 1874) has a sketch by Gill. Later editions are bv Ingram ( 2il ed., 4 vols.. Edinburgh. 1880; New Y'ork, 1804); Sted- man and Woodberry (10 vols,, Chicago. 1805), a scholarly and complete edition ; and the Vir- ginia edition by Harrison, with notes by Stewart (17 vols., Boston, 1902), in which is included, in addition to the com|ilete works of the poet, all the obtainable information as to his life, and a full bibliograjdiy. Poe's Talcs have been trans- lated into French by Baudelaire and are in his QJurrcis coiiiplcfcx. vols, v.-vii. (Paris, 1878-82). There are also German and Spanisli translations. The Poems have been published separately with memoirs by Hannay (London, 1805), Blanch- ard (ib., 1857), and Briggs (New York, 1859). Of the numerous biographies, W'hitman, Ed- gar Allan Poe and His Critics (New Y'ork, "l8G0) : Gill, Life of Edgar Allan Poe (.5th ed., ib., 1880) : and Ingram, Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions (2d ed., London, 1880), are answers to Griswold's as- sertions. The Life by Didier (New Y'ork. 1877) is not entirely trustworthy. There are essays by Baudelaire prefixed to volumes v. and vi. of his (Eiirres computes, above mentioned, and by Sted- man, in Poets of America (New Y'ork, 1880). The most critical Life is by Woodberry, in the "-American ilen of Letters Series" (Boston, 1SS5). A selection from Poe's correspondence, edited by Woodberry, appeared in the Century Magazine, vol. xxvi. (New Y'ork, 1804). POE, Orl.xdo :Metcalfe (1832-95). An American soldier, born at Navarre, Ohio. He graduated at West Point in 1856, and entered the I