The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1878-10-31
Poo and Mrs. Whitman.

Z
them, says Eugene l.. Didicr in Li6pin-
coHs, were more worthy Of honor than
Mrs, Sarah Helen Whitman, the friend
and defender of Edgar A. Poe, That he
should have inspired so deep and lasting
love in the heart of ~ true and pure n
woman would alone prove that he was
not the social pariah his vindictive enc
mics have held up to the worlds wonder
and detestatiOn, The poets love for
Mrs. Whitman was the one glcam of
hope that chccrcd the last sad years of
his life. His letters to her brcathed the
most passionate devotion and the most
enthusiastic admiration, One eloquent
extract from his low-lctters to Mrs.
Whitman will suffice. In response to a
passage in one Of her letters in which
she says; Chow often have heard men,
and even women, say of you, He has
great intellectual power hut no princ-
pie, no moral sense" he exclaims: 81
love You too truly ever TO have offered
you my hand, ever to have sought your
love, mad known my name to be so
stained as your expressions imply.
There is no oath which seems 10 me 10
sacred as that sworn by the all divine
love bear you, BY this love, then, and
by the God who reiCnS in heaven,
swear to you that my soul is incapable
Of dishOnOr. | can call to mind no act
Of my life which woul bring blush to
my cheek or TO yours
Carried away by the ardor and elo-
quent passion of her poet.lovcr, aud full
of the sweetest human sympathy and the
tenderest human charity for one so gifted
but 70 unfortunate, Mrs. Whitman,
against the advice of her relatives and
friends, consented to a conditional en-
gagement. 1T was in relation to this en-
gagement, and the cause OF its being
broken Oft that one Of the most calum-
nious stories against Poe was told, and
believed both in America and in Europe,
but especially in England. Why the en-
| gagcment was broken, and by whom,
still remains buried in mystery, but that
Poe was gdilty OF any outrage at her
house upon the eve of their intended
marriage was cmphatically denied by
Mrs. Whitman. She pronounced the
whole story calumny.' In letter
before me she says: " do not think it
possible to overstate the gentlcmanly
rcticence and amenity of his habtual
manner. 1t was stamped through and
through with the impress of nobility and
gentlenss. have seen him in many
moods and phases in those lonesome,
latter years which were rapidly merg-
ing into the mournful tragedy of death.
| have seen him sullen and moody under
a sense Of insult and imaginary wrong
haze never seen in him the fainte-t in
dication Of savagery and rowdyism aud
brutality
Some of the most tenderIy passionate
Of Mrs. Whitman's verses were inspired
by her affection for Poe. She wrote six
sonnets to his memory, overlooking with
the most exalted love and generous SYM
pathy. The first of these s0nnetS ends
thus:
! "ThoR vert my destiny; Thy song, thy fame,
| The wild ychantments clustering round thy zane,
| Were my souls heIitaRe-tt its regal dover,
! Its glory and its kingdom, and its power"
| When malice had exhausted itself in
heapng ohloquy upon the name of the
! dead poet, it was the gentle hand of
woman that first removed the Odum
from his memory. 1t was Mrs. Whit
man-who loved him and whom he
loved--that dared TO penetrate the
mournful corridors - of that sad, des-
olate heart, with its "halls of tragedy
and chambers of retribution," " and tell
the true but melancholy story OF the un-
happy master of the Raven" 1t was
she who generously came forward as
cone Of the friends" of him who was
said to have no friends. She was his
steady champion from first to last.
Whether it was some crackbrain scrib-
bier who tried to prove Poe "mad,"
some accomplished scholar who en-
deavored to disparage him in order to
magnify some other writer, or some silly
woman who attempted to foist herself
into notice by relating imaginary
facts" concerning the poets hidden life,
Mrs. Whitman was always ready to de-
fend her dead friend.
1t was Mrs. Whitman who first at
tempted to trace Edgar Poe's descent
from the old Norman family lie Poer,
which emigrated to Ireland during the
reign of Henry II, of England. Lady
Blessington, through her father, Edmund
Power, claimed the same illustrious de-
scent. The lie Peers were distinguished
for being improvident, daring and rcck-
less. The family originally belonged t.
Italy, whence they passed to the north
of France, and went to England with
William the COnqueror. In the letter
dated January 8, 1877, Mrs. Whitman
says: "For all that said on the subject
| alone am responsible. A distant rela-
tive of mine, Il descendant, like myself,
from Nicholas lie Poer, had long minis
tered to my genealogical proclivities by
stories which from my childhood had
vaguely haunted and charmed my imag-
instion. When discovered certain facts
of Poe's history Of which he had pre-
viousiy made little account, he seemed
greatly impressed by my theory of our
relationship. Of course ! endowed him
with my traditional heirlooms. John
Savage, who wrote some fine papers on
Poe. which think appeared in the Dem
ocratic Reriem, perhaps in 1858, said to a
friend of mine that the things most in
teresting and valuable to him in my
little book Poe and His Critics J were
its genealogical hints"
Mrs. Whitman translated Mallarme's
inscription intended for the Poe monu-
ment in Baltimore. The last verse was
thus rendered:
Through storiei centuries thou shalt proudly ,
stand
In the Memorial City Of his land
silent monitor, austere and gray,
To warn the clamorous brood Of harpies from their
prey"
ELDER STEVENSON, Mormon mis-.
sionary, incidentally proposed matri.
mony to widow and her two daughters
in Hickman County, Tenn. They said
yes, and are on their way to Salt Lake