The Irish standard., 1901-04-27

was Informed, and it takes long to
overtake a SANDER. Baudclaire, when
translating Poe's tales into French,
asked if there was no law in America
to prevent ours from entering into the
cemeteries of the dead? Mr.. j. H..
Ingram, in 1874, when publishing
Poe's works, undertook in his bio
graphical preface to prove that the
impression usually formed of the au-
thor of "Thc Raven" in this country
is false. We are inclined to view him
as a kind of clarence Mangan" and
there is something remarkably similar
in the genius of tire two men, but Ed
gar Poe's career was quite of another
type.
AS to Poe's Irish pedigree, the fam
lily is known as Gle Poer," or "Pow-
err in the South Of Ireland Edgar's
great-grandfather married the daugh-
ter of Admiral Mcbride, and a son,
David, was born to him, it is said, in
Londonderry, who, when two years
old, was taken by his parents to Mary
land. Edgar Poe's grandfather was
thus born in Ireland. He became IL
general in the American war of indie
pendencc. His son, another David.
neglected legal studies for poetry and
the stage: and when little more than Il
youth married an actress. who seems
to have been equally gifted. Tho
young couple died within few years.
leaving three children, William, Ro-
sale and Edgar.
Edgar was but two years old when
he was adopted by wealthy merchant
and his wife. Mr.. and Mrs. Allan, who
were childlesS. They called the boy
Edgar Allan. The Allans treated the
child as 4 plaything. His beauty was
remarkable. and his talent for declaim-
ing poetry considerable From the
first the poetic genius was strong in
him. uniting. him probably for rou-
tine work. At school he took the lead
in his class, in studies as we'll as in
games. But after Mrs. Allan's death
the widower married again. Edgar
was in the way. He had ceased to
amuse. His talents were misunder-
Stood and the result was n summary
dismissal from his early home Mr..
Allan henceforth neither allowed him
subsistence nor even mentioned him in
his Will
Edgar was twenty years old at this
time, and weighed with the finest poet
lc talent that had ever yet appeared in
America. he was cut adrift to sink or
swim. His romantic marriage and the
adventures of his life We're no concern
at present. 1t would suffice to see the
real man in his published works. They
were of three kinds-poems, essays
and tales. If he did not produce many
masterpieces, it must be remembered
that he was all his life struggling to
procure bread for his family. In his
phrascology Poe followed Coler,lge,
and especially in the famous distinc-
ton between "Imagination" and "Fan-
Cyl as operations of mind.
IAN immortal instinct" says Poe,
deep within the spirit of man is a
sense of the beautiful. Fine art uses
tho visible as means to symbolize Il
higher perfection, which the mind can
penetrate to. This valuing of the
seen in proportion as it reveals the
ideal is rather a Celtic, than a Saxon
characteristic. To the Celtic mind
everything around is first of all sug-
gestive. 1t is this characteristic which
lies at the root Of the fairy and folk
lore of Ireland. The rings of darker
green in the grass, or the rath in the
field, is no sooner seen by Irish peas
ant eyes. than it becomes significant
OF something. The ring or the grass
suggests trampling of tiny feet, as
they circle in the dance. When Irish
eyes see Il concrete object the mind
looks to cause. The Saxon mind
would be quite content to stop at what
is seen. II he thought of anything
else it might be how far the "rngs"
would lessen the value of his grass.
An Irish mind must fashion to itself
something to account for outward
phenomena. And it is this intellectual
people which has been so long with
out any adequate teaching as to true
cause and effect?
The mission Of the Celt has ever
been to counteract that downward ten
dency in the more materialistic Saxon.
The real essence of the strife between
the two races may consist in that con-
ftrt between the spirit and the flesh.
which divides the world. Edgar Poe
was fighting against great odds in his
day. His foes never spared him. liv-
ing or dead. But it should be a duty,
dear to the Irish National Society. to
protect the memory of such Il man,
and to give him his proper place among
| the heroes of the Irish race ut home
and abroad, who are fighting the bat
tie OF the intellectually beautiful in
literature and the drama against tho
sensually rcpulsive.