New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-30
THE POE HENpRIAL.

A monument or memorial of Il great mar in
the limited States is usually an enormous con-
ceptOn and most mean and miserable conciu-
sion. We sincerely hoIe this VIII not be the
history of the memorial which it is proposed by
the actors and friends o. the drama to erect in
the METROPOLITAN Museum to Poe. We do not
believe it will lie. The sum which they wish
to raise ($1O, OO0) is not inordnatrly large, and
can easily be got together by little hearty
united effort.
There is a peculiar felicity in the idea. too
which will commend it to the educated pull lie
1t is tho first attempt to offer any enduring
recognition Of the claims OF Il man who as
surcdly stands in the front rank OF American
poets, and it is a graceful, generous tribute
from the North to Southern writer,-we had
almost said to tie typical southern writer. For
Poe although he was probably born III Boston,
and although most Of his fame WAS earned
while living in the North was in character AMI
genius the exponent Of a class only found he low
Mason and DIxor's Line. He at once expressed
and moulded the temp ramrnt aud the habr at
thought of the educated Southern young men
of his day, Just as Byron did for Young Eng
land ard Goethe for YOUNG Germany. His
flashes of brilliancv and weakness. his gcncr-
osty and hi, cyncisin, lis spasin"dic Incidence
and iudustIy-all partly real and partly Affected
were = combination oi traits scid m found in u
Northern m:n but not an unfamiliar type
among the People among whom he lived and
by whom he * rcvcrcuccd to-day With an i'm
moderate homage. The cXtcht, indeed, TO
which Poe's work has influenced what might hc
called the mental physiology of the South i
scarcely anpr, ciablr by IN outsider. lie has his
weak imitators Ia cv.iy college and Lew -IHpr.
As man AMI writer. however. he Wa purely IN
American type. iust rs much IL llH"iho'n".
who was the outeroWtt of Nrw-EuclLmI crrcds
and life, or Walt Whitman, or J'aq1lu Miller.
1t il fitting. therefore, that this memorial %
Poe should he placed in he metropolis of the
country.
There is an Appropriateness, too, AZ tie onc"-
ing of thi, tribute 10y actors, although Poe was
neither PLAYER nor playwright. lll1 parents
were both on the stage and he shows in bOh
his prose and poetic work that be poS>rs,c$ in
M exceptional degree the dramatic eye and
touch. lie saw lite only on the outside; the
world apparently passed before hm like an cx-
aggerated mclOdrama. and poems aud tales are
only scenes from it held up t. thu eye o! the
reader; they are too ObS iOuSY unreal to make
us laugh OF cry, as we do ut the human beings
conceived by other writer's. Poc'S "mmcs
"hthcr and thither fly; Mere puppets they who
scome and CO. and when we turn the page the
curtain falls and we remember them as so many
pictured ghosts.
Justice has come tardily to rchabilitatc Poc's
memory, winch his boSrapher made haste TO
consign to iniamy the very day af ,cr he was
dead. A whole generation has regarded him as
an abnormal. sOulcss monster, a being without
q moral sense; we know now that when sober
he Was a loyal friend, u hard worker, and
tender husband and son. No man probably
las suffered heavier punishment both while
living and dead for what he was when not
sober. This late reparation for injustice done
him by public opinion is both sincere and de-
served.