Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1864-08-12
From the Southern Eclestic. -0rt. 1853 {;
EDGAR ALLAN POE. s2

without entering into those painful minute details
to which We have sdysrted- he was born ~ Dal.l,
more, in Maryland, in the year ISL bus Presen'
editor remarks that the name Is NOT common
one in England, and considers the poet 70 naye
been connected, though remotely, with a. nlgnlyS
respectable family of the same name IN Hs,suu
Ills father, David Poe, it is stated, having mar
ried an enchanting actress of uncertain prosPect'
adopted the precarious profession OF BIS We; Iney
both, however, died Young, leaving three eniioren
of whom, We believe, Edgar was tne oioese--so
A rich and benevolent gentleman, named Alan'
who had no children Of his own, adopted the aes.
tmto Cigar and brought him to Engi%nd, Wnere
he placed him at school for i've years. AT the
expiration Of this period in the year 1881, ne re-
turned to America and was first sent to the acao'
emy at Richmond, aud subsequently to the uni
versty at Charlottesville His "eceenricites Ito
use the mii,lest phrase here commenced, and soon
reached such q climax o. to exhaust even the pa
thence OF his patron who really acted through the
waywafd course of his adopted son, with more
than the affection and forgiveness Of q fatheF. The
evil faint in the mind or heart of Poe here became
painfully distinct He satirized his benevolent and
indulgent benefactor, wrote him q sharp and un.
grateful letter, and then adopted the heroic deter
mnatiOn Of assisting the Greeks in their effort to
shake of the Turkish yoke! He accordingly sailed
for Europe; but instead of making his way to the
. lssss % GEseCes |" and aaaise efOsy 0r&gFeFs,
like Byron; on O. "a,
-. The kulleu, silent shores of Aissoloug CHR '
the first place hear of him turning up is at St.
PeteFsburgh. By the assistance of the American
smnster+in that city, he was enabled to return to
his native country. He was again received into
favor by Mr. Allan, was entered by him As q cadet
in the military academy, and terminated a very
href, competition, with. that institution by being
"cashieredn So. ed.
e."Tt.seens to have been about this time" says
M HRnnQV fhofh he mod vvhi hOy
his first volume Of poems-Ihose comprised in his
later collection as Poems written in Youth. "
There are, OF course, obvious traces OF imitation
adophons of the metres of standardization of By
ron but there Is the keenest feeling for the Beau
tful, which was the predominant feeling of Poe's
whole life there is the loveest easiest, joyfuest
flow Of music throughout. There is, too, what
must have been almost instructive, and exqui-
site taste, "a taste which lay the very centre of
his intellect, like conscience"
These poems had considerable success which,
however, seemed to have little effect on the conduct
or circumstances Of the poet, as the next event of
any importance which took place IN bis life, was
his eniisting as private soldier! ColeFidge did
the same thing in his "hoL youth" under the
appropriate name Of Mr. Cnmberback or Cumber.
back and we do not know whether it was the
same Incapacity for equestrian evolutions thAtled
to the release Of the American as Of the English
poet, from the service Of "tbe great god of war"
After disappearing from the sight Of his friends in
this way for sometime, he suddenly reappeAred,
thin, pale, ard ghaStly, with the mark Of poverty
branded upon bIm;" and being thus trained into
an appropriate appearance and condition for the
profession lie at last adopted, he commenced life
regularly ut last as q literary man. Having reach
ed che splendid success Of making about one hun
dred pounds in a year-that tempting bait which
literature or 1.-The trade holds out TO men Of bril-
liant minds and cultivated ntellcctS-he conceived
n In Ha
married his cousin, Virginia GLENN, las poer as
himself'-to use the language of one of his biog
raphsrS, bot who was firmly believe, all that
his present editor describes her to be, "a most
amlaDle, loVeable and loving person.
THIS was the bright spot that cleaned in the
desert of poor POes life. We hear Of their hum
bic but elegant little home his assiduous atten-
ton to whatever literary periodicals of the place
supplied him with we get brief respite from the
sad catalogue of eccentrcitieS and Irregularities at
other times so overloaded-all, we have no doubt
owing to the gentle and refining influence of the
dear being by his side. She must have been Ito
use the language Of one who has condeScended to
verse too seldom)-
"No petted play thing to caress or chids
In sport strife;
But his best chosen friend companion guide,
To walk through life
l. nkrd hand in hand"
Bat alas the clasp Of this dear and sustaining
hand was Aoon to be severed by death; and the
poet, now left wholly to himself (for they had no
chlldren,) and uncontrolled by the unfelt end al
most invisible Influence Of the guardian angel Of
his home, relapsed into all his former errors; it.
indeed, he did not become infected by new. That
he was devoted and attached husband is proved
bv the fact, that even the death of her daughter
did not diminish the affectionate interest or lessen
the active services, which his mother in law ever
felt for Poe, and continued to offer to him during
the remainder of his life He always called her
his mother" and tho beautiful sonnet which he
dedicated to her, after the death of his beloved
Virginia, shows that to her. at least he was not
uDgrateful-
"TO MOTHER.
Because feel that, in the heavens above.
The angels whispering TO yne another
Gan ma "mong their burning terms Of love,
Nome so devotional as that of Mother
Therefore by mat dear name long have called YOU
You. who than mother unto me-
And MI my heart Of hearts where death install you
In seitILg my VHg'nIa's spirit free.
My mOtber-my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother Of myself but YOU
Are mother 10 the one loved so dearly
And thus are dearer than the mother knew
BY that inanity with which my wife
Was deIrer tony soul than its soul-Iifs"
The loss Of his wife, however destructive of the
happiness and injurious in its consequences to the
conduct and character Of the poet, was, neverthe
less the sad source from which flowed over the
world those few sweet stream like melodious wall.
, ings,
" So musical, so melancholy"
| which have rescued the name of the mourner and
the minstrel from oblivion. This is the" one fata
remembrance" the lone shadow, that under va
rying names and differing circumstances, is to b
met with in almost all the subsequent poems Of
Poe, and which give mournful beauty and inter
est to the otherwise monotonous briliancy of his
poetry, like expresses in an Italian cemetery.
Take, for instance, the second stanzs of Poe't
most celebrated poem, The Raven:
"Ah, distinctly remember it was in the bleak December
Aud each separate dying eber wrought its ghost upor
the hOor,
Eagerly wished the morrow; vainly had sought I,