The Arkansaw traveler., 1886-05-15
EDGAR ALLAN POE.
By George ]. Medole.

Twenty minutes ride from the Grand Central depot brings Us to the beautiful and historical village of Fordham, in the twenty-fourth ward, and turning to the left from the station and passing up wards between the moss-covcrcd rocks, stone walls and great old trees upon the kingsbridge road, we soon reach the last residence of the most famous of American poets, Edgar Allan Poe around which cluster so many sad "reminiscences of the man who was at one time the most distinguished and most unfortunate of our purely native writers.
 The place consists of a -and-;t-half story house with a lean-to addition on one side and broad vcranda on two sides of the main building. All are pie turesquely overgrown and covered with vines and creepers and a number of grand old cherry trees in the yard throw a massive shade upon the vcranda. This all stands i'll the center of about two acres of greensward, soft and velyety Near the house is a syringa bush planted by the poet, and in the orchard, on one of the trees are his initials cut by him self but which now have lost much of their shape ill elongation by the growth of the tree
 Back of the cottage stands the pine under which Poe was in the habit of reclining for hours at time, dreaming dreams no mortal eyer dared to dream before" Here, in lS46 Poe moved with his child-wife (she married at fourtcen), and her mother, where, buried among hn h l,,, ,Nf ,1l, ,Afp and mignonctte, and his few pets about him, he devoted himself to the task of earning a living by his pen and that only; q task and hope that has always been hollow mockery, delusion, and a snare,
 In the upper story of this house under the slanting roof, which is reached by winding stairway, was his study and bedroom. It is lighted by a large double window, and at the opposite side is d very ample open fireplace. What a host of memories are crowded upon you as you enter this sacred chamber Here, many and many time, has he
 "pondcrcd weak and weary. over many quaint and curious N"lu "l for
 gotten lore.
 Here, during the last sickness of his wife, when the hand of death was falling gently but surely and unmistakc kcablv in that
 bleak December.
 " Nainly had he sought to borrow
 From his books Surcci,sr of sorroW-sorroW for the
 lost l4eonUrc.
 For that rare and radiant maiden whom the
 angels named lconorc.
 Here is the window at which came the tapping of the ominous and evil Rocta, and through which, when he opened it, with many a tlirt and liutter stepped the ghastly, grim, uncertain bird from the night plutonian shore; there over the door stood the bust of Pallas upon which this horrible bird perched himself and by his croaking Nevermore," struck wonder awe, anger and terror into the poet s heart. Here he stood when he pleaded with the gaunt spectre Prophet, said l. thing of evil-prophct still,
 if bird or devil
 Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed
 thee here ashore,
 Desolate yet all unduunted, on this desert land
 enchanted
 On this home by horror hauntcd-tcll me truly, I Is there's there balm in Gilcnd? Tell me tell
 Inc, implorc-
 Quoth the Raven! Ncvermore"
 And here on this spot on the floor is where the awful shadow of death fell " And my soul from out that shadow that lies
 floating on the floor
 shall be hfted-ncVermore."
 Virginia Eliza Poe passed away Janu- ary 50, lS4I, and was buried in the rus tic churchyard here at Fordham only twenty-five years old A darker shadow than the Racen threw upon the study floor tho cO,,l of D@A : was never lifted from it. Poor before he was poorer now; and never a. rapid or voluminous writer, he became slower and less frequent in his productions but here, under the shadow of her love he continued with great difficulty to write and produced "Ulalume," Anna bel Lee, and number of prose pieces
 The country lanes and by-ways in this section are exceeding beautiful, and ii was Poe's delight to take long strolls in the early morning. There is ledge oi rocks near the cottage crowned with pines and cedars, which commands q tne view of the surrounding country and which he loved Here he would sit for hours wrapped in thought over the composition of Eureka" which be be gan after his wife's death.
 There was spirit of unrest and revolt in Poe, which refused to accept whatever had established itself Born in the low est walks of life, the child of strollins players, adopted by MT. Allan, a wealthy gentleman of Baltimore, he was given { splendid education. Nature had fiber ally, nay bountifully, endowed him witl magnificent talents, which, under other circumstances, would have made him ( happy man, an ornament to society, anC monument of honor to his country
 s This article was prepared during the fall o iSsa It is possible that since then changes hay, been made in the Poe Cottage"