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MEMOIR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. - Complete Poetical Works| Set Display | Please Turn On Your Virtual Bookmarks | You Can Help This Site | Table of Contents | Edgar Allan Poe |
Page 2 of 172
MEMOIR OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. - Complete Poetical Works
To----("The bowers whereat, in dreams, I see")
To the River----
Song
Spirits of the Dead
A Dream
Romance
Fairyland
The Lake
Evening Star
Imitation
"The Happiest Day,"
Hymn. Translation from the Greek
Dreams
"In Youth I have known one"
A Paean
Notes
DOUBTFUL POEMS:
Alone
To Isadore
The Village Street
The Forest Reverie
Notes
PROSE POEMS:
The Island of the Fay
The Power of Words
The Colloquy of Monos and Una
The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion
Shadow--A Parable
Silence--A Fable
ESSAYS:
The Poetic Principle
The Philosophy of Composition
Old English Poetry
During the last few years every incident in the life of Edgar Poe has been subjected to microscopic investigation. The result has not been altogether satisfactory. On the one hand, envy and prejudice have magnified every blemish of his character into crime, whilst on the other, blind admiration would depict him as far "too good for human nature's daily food." Let us endeavor to judge him impartially, granting that he was as a mortal subject to the ordinary weaknesses of mortality, but that he was tempted sorely, treated badly, and suffered deeply.
The poet's ancestry and parentage are chiefly interesting as explaining some of the complexities of his character. His father, David Poe, was of Anglo-Irish extraction. Educated for the Bar, he elected to abandon it for the stage. In one of his tours through the chief towns of the United States he met and married a young actress, Elizabeth Arnold, member of an English family distinguished for its musical talents. As an actress, Elizabeth Poe acquired some reputation, but became even better known for her domestic virtues. In those days the United States afforded little scope for dramatic energy, so it is not surprising to find that when her husband died, after a few years of married life, the young widow had a vain struggle to maintain herself and three little ones, William Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie. Before her premature death, in December, 1811, the poet's mother had been reduced to the dire necessity of living on the charity of her neighbors.
Edgar, the second child of David and Elizabeth Poe, was born at Boston, in the United States, on the 19th of January, 1809. Upon his mother's death at Richmond, Virginia, Edgar was adopted by a wealthy Scotch merchant, John Allan. Mr. Allan, who had married an American lady and settled in Virginia, was childless. He therefore took naturally to the brilliant and beautiful little boy, treated him as his son, and made him take his own surname. Edgar Allan, as he was now styled, after some elementary tuition in Richmond, was taken to England by his adopted parents, and, in 1816, placed at the Manor House School, Stoke-Newington. 
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