Weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1858-1865, 1864-08-17
from the Southern Eelectic.-Oct. 1852
EDGAR ALLAN POE. =

70 which we have adverted. He was born at Balti-
more, in Maryland, in the year 1911. His present
editor remarks that the name is not 4 common
one in England, and considers the poet to have
been connected, though remotely, with highly
respectable family of the same name in Ireland"
His father, David Poe, it is stated, having mar.
ried adj enchanting actress Of uncertain prospects,,
adopted the precarious profession Of his WIFE, They
both, however, died young, leaving three children
--of whom, We believe, Edgar was the oldest-to-
tally unprovided for
A rich ant benevolent gentleman, named Allan,
who had no children of his own, adopted the des.
titute Edgar and brought him to England, where
he placed him at school for five years. At the
expiration of this period, in the year 1889, he re.
turned to America, and was first sent to the acad
envy at Richmond and subsequently to the uni
versity at Charlottesville. His "eccentricties" Ito
use the mildest phrase) here commenced, and soon
reached such q climax as to exhaust even the pa
tience of his patron who really acted through the
hayward course of his adopted son. with more
than the affection and forgiveness of father. The
evil faint in the mind or heart Of Poe here became
painfully distinct He satrized bis benevolent and
indulgent benefactor, wrote him q sharp and IN
grateful letter. and then adopted the heroic deter
mnation of assisting the Greeks in their effort to
shake off the Turkish yoke He accordingly sailed
for Europe but instead of making his way to the
isles of Greece" and finding glory or grave,
The sullen, silent shores of Missolonghi'-
the first place We hear of him turning up is at st.
Petersburgh. By the assistance of the American
minister in that city, be was enabled to return to
his native country. He was again received into
favor by Mr.. Allan, was entered by him as cadet
in the military academy, and terminated very
brief connection with that institution by being
"cashiered!'
at seems to have been about this time," says
Mr.. Hannay, "that he published, while still boy,
his first volume of poems-those comprised in his
later collection as i" Poems written in YOUTH
There are, of course obvious traces of imitation
adoptions Of the metres of Scott-imtation of By
ron but there Is the keenest feeling for the Beau
tifal, which was the predominant feeling Of Poes
whole life; there is the loveliest easiest joyfullest
flow Of music throughout There is, too, what
must have been almost instructive, and exqui-
site taste "a taste which lay at the very centre of
bis intellect, like conscience"
These poems had a considerable success, which,
however, seemed to have little effect the conduct
or circumstances of the poet, the next event of
any Importance which took place IN his life, was
his enlisting as private soldier Coleridge did
the same thing in his "hot YOUTH" under the
appropriate name of Mr.. Comberback or Cumber-
back and do not know whether it was the
same lncapacty for equestrian evolutions that led
to the release of the American as of the English
poet, from the service of "the great god of war"
After disappearing from the sight Of his friends in
this way for sometime be suddenly reappeared,
thin, pale, ard CHASTITY, with the mark of poverty
branded upon him" and being thus trained into
an appropriate appearance and condition for the
profession he at last adopted, he commenced life
ed the splendid success of making about one hun
dred pounds in year-that tempting bait which
literature or the trade holds out to men of bril-
liant minds and cultivated intellects-he conceived
himself in position to marry. He accordingly
married his cousin, Virginia GLENN, "as poor as
himself"-to use the language of one of his biog-
raphers, but who was, We firmly believe. all that
his present editor describes her to be, "a most
amlable, loveable and loving person."
This was the bright spot that cleaned in the
desert of poor Poe's 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
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 chide
| In sport or strife .
But his best chosen friend companion. guide,
| To walk through life
Linked hand in hand"
But alasl the clasp, of this dear and sustaining
hand was soon to BE- severed by death and thu
poet, now left wholly to himself Qor they had NJ
children,) and uncontrolled by the uEfelt and al
most invisible Influence of the guardian angel o
his home, relapsed into all his former errors; if
indeed, he did not become infected by new. Tha
ne was devoted and attached husband is PROVED
by the fact that even the death of her daughte
did not diminish the aeconate interest, or lesser
the active services, which his mother. in. law eve
felt Tor Poe, and continued to offer to him durin,
the remainder of his life. He always called he
"his mother" and the beautiful sonnet which b.
dedicated to her, after the death of his believe,
Virginia, shows that to her, at least he was mo-
ungrateiul-
l. Ito NY nornEn
because feel that in the heavens above,
+ The angels, whispering to one another,
Can lind smong their burning terms Of love,
None so devotional as that of Mother
therefore by that dear name long have called you
| You, who are more than mother unto me-
And ill my heart of hearts, where death install you
In settLg my VirginIas spirit free.
NY motber-my own mother who died early,
| was but the mother of myself but you
+ Are mother to the one loved so dearly,
And thus dearer than the mother knew
BY that infny with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul.life"
The loss of his wife, however destructive of tn
happiness, and injurious in its consequences to tn
conduct and character of the poet, was, neverthe
less, the sad source from which flowed over tn
world those few sweet stream like melodious wall
ings,
I" So musical, melancholy"
which have rescued the name of the mourner an
the minstrel from oblivion. This is the one fats
remembrance" the zone shadow" that under VI
rying names and differing circumstances, is to
! met with in almost all the subsequent poems {
! Poe, and which give mournful beauty and intel
est to the otherwise monotonous brill ancy of hi
|, poetry, like expresses in an Italian cemetry,
Take, for instance, the second stanza of Poe
most celebrated poem, "The Raven:
Alb, distinctly remember it was in the bleak Decembe
And each separate dying ember wrought it's ghost upc
} }, EageryI wished the morrow; vainly had sought
4 7 borrow e.
From my books of sorrow-sorrow for thu In
Lenore- ~ ~
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels nan
s Lenore- -eS' A"
= Namsess here forever MORE"