Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1860-07-17


KB s1R PoE cRrzIcs, by sarsh Helen Whitman New
YORK Radd Carleton. 1860.
Some time ago there was sent TO the Office of this
journal. note without signature, requesting that
the gentleman who does the literary editorials (con
corning whom some compliments were inserted too
hattering for a modest editor to insert) would
write cridque on the works Of EDGAR A. Pos, and
especially on his celebrated poem, The Raeen Our
correspondent seemed to be an enthusiastic adj
mirer of Poe, and frem various indications we sus-
pected that she was lady. This left US in some
perplexity, as we suspected that our own judgment
Of the author in question might not tally with that
o. our far correspondent, and we are nervously 1
apprehensive of anything like difference with
lady. We were in hesitation when our attention
was again challenged to the same subject by re-
ceiving from Messrs. BERRY & Co.. the little work
whose title is at the head of this article. There
seems, then, no escape and We proceed to say to
our readers what we have to say, regarding EDGAR
A. Poe.
There is a class Of writers whose works cannot
be separated from their own characters, whose
poems are so essentially part of themselves, de-
irving their tone and feeling so entirely from the
moods and passions of the author that in consider
ing the merits of the poem, are compelled at the
same time to form an estimate of the poet himself
BYRoS and Poe, different enough in all other points,
are alike il this. A poem by either of them is
bitter cry of pain and anger, calling on readers to
behold what they suffer expend their indignation
at treatment such as never man was visited with
before this particular poet Since, then, poets of
this class coin from their hearts the literary cur
reucv which they issue, and challenge scrutiny of
A. q %l,asr
tion the critic has the choice of silence or OF ac
ceptng this challenge and with thepoem, criticising
the poet.
But with this sort of criticism the critic is ex-
ceedingly liable to burn his fingers. Witness the
conflicting lives and memoirs and conversations Of
Lord BYRON and the furious controversies OF their
authors. And EDGAR Poe seems to give as much
trouble to his biographers The mentors by Mr.
MORTON GRIswOLD having been received with I'M
mereiful criticism by those who thought that some
of the imputed facts were not justly imputed and
that the mantle of charity had ought to have been
thrown over the rest The work before us, is one
of these protests it seems to have been written by
an amiable lady who met AMI admired Mr.. Poe in
the literary lotteries of New York, an atmosphere
of mutual admiration by-the-by not very favorable
to the study of character. 1t IS in fact easily dis
posed of it does not undertake any reinstatement OF
facts but protests against the acrimony with which
PoE has been judged, it gives US no new materials
for determining what should think Of the author,
butnstructs us how according to our authoress, we
should feel towards him. Acknowledging the good
intentions of the autAoress, think it more pro-
missing field of study to ascertain what we can Of the
facts and to determine how far the life of the man
accounts for, and interprets his poetry With this
view, taking into consideration the limits of news
paper notice. we have thought it best to publish two
articles on the subject in the first of which is to be
given an account ofthe life and character of the
author and in the second, an analysis of some of
his more prominent works.
EDGAR PooE born in 1911, was the offspring of an
evidently imp-udent marriage of his father DAVID
Poe, with pretty comic actress of no particular
talents named ELIZABETH ARNOLD. Alta very early
age he was left entirely destitute by the death of
both parents within few weeks of one another.
He was shortly afterwards adopted by wealthy
merchant named JOIN ALLAN, who seems to
have had very inadequate conceptions of the
sponsibilities incurred in such step; consider
ing the whole case We have come TO the conslusiOn
that he would have done better for his prOege if he
had left hm to battle with the penury to which he
was born than he did in spelling him for working
hand in the world factory without giving him the
means of playing his part in any other capcty.
Unlimited influence, total absence of control,
which was neither exercised by lis adaptive father,
nor permitted to his teachers, pampered appetites
and unchastened passions ali this seemed suited to
the training of a young nObleman or sovereign
prince who to have nothing to do in this world
but seek occasions for the qualification of his sover
eign will and pleasure.
natural result of all this was that when he went
to the University of Charlottesville, Va he dis
tingushed as the widest of a dissipated class
throughout career that ended in expulsion the
heels of which came a squabble with his patron
about unliquidated debts, under the influence of
which he went to Europe avowedly to join the in
surgent Greeks what he really did there nobody
knows, but at the end of that time find him
cued from the consequences of a drunken escapade
in ST. Petersburg by the Intervention of the Ameri-
can Minister there and sent home. His patron now
entered him at West Point, at his own request
where he was cashiered in ten months meantime
his patron had lost his first wife (whO seemed to ex-
ercise more favorable influence on Poe than any
other person who came in contact with him), and
Poe on his return found a second wife nee Miss
PATTERSON at the head of the establishment. An r-
reconcable quarrel, the details of which are sup
pressed by both parties resulted which terminated
all intercourse between Poe and Mr.. ALLAN, who
died in 1884, making no provisions for his prOtegee.
Here then is great turning point in the career of
our hero-everything completely reversed. At the
age of twenty-three, with brilliant talents, hand
some person, the habit of command and of unlimit-
ed expenditure reared in the expectation of wealth
and the possession of social position unused to the
contemplation of forethought, industry, or econo-
my, as appropriate qualifications for the part he in
tended to play in life Suddenly he is confronted with
stern necessities the hard realities of life, with no
artificial barriers interposed between his dainty
person and the vulgar exigencies of poverty, Of
worse than poverty. of pampered appetites and I'M
chastened passions with utter restitution of the
means of gratifying them.
Whatever may have been the atrocity of POE's
provocation we cannot but consider the conduct of
Mr.. ALLAN reprehensibIe-a total cessation of in
tercourse may have been inevitable, but after
all that had passed it unquestionaby his duty
to see that absolute restitution should not be the
fate of his former protegee.
How then did Poe encounter Ms terrible reverse,
The circumstances were such as would crush nine
ty-nine men out of a hundred, perhaps the hun
dredth might have been braced to manful conflict
with fortune, and risen superior to her worst
despite.
But this pre-supposes the possession of several
faculties which had never been cultivated in him.
Strength of principle, indomitable perseverance,
intrepid endurance, alas! where was the
discipline under which such qualifications
could be acquired! In EDGAR Poe had
been cherished only the butterfly graces which
should adorn the spoiled child of fortune he broke
down completely and irretrievably under the trial.
and was a lost man for ever.
On his separation from the family of Mr. ALLAN
he had entered the army private, and while
friends were making exertions to procure him
commission, deserted. Wat scenes of wretched-
ness he went through subsequently we know not
but it probably at this time that he became ut
terly enslaved toathe vice of drunkenness, from
which he was never emancpated-nOt but whB his
habits Incorporate and in all respects disspa-
ted while in prosperitv but it is in the depression of