The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-07-14
AN APPRECIATION OF THE POET
RY OF EDGAR ALLEN POE

For true Interpretation of
poetry, it is necessary for us to enter
into the inner spirit of the poet
to see the picture that he portrays-
to share his enthusiasm and warmth
of feeling. OF no poet is this trurer
than Edgar Allen Poe. There can be
no real appreciation, no real inter
probation of his poems, save by learn
ing his manner, entering into his
mood, and seeing life from his point
Of view. Few careers so dark and
disastrous as that OF Poe have a place
in the sad records of genius, but there
is about his verse a strange fascina-
ton which haunts the memory. To
those who can fully appreciate the
value Of poetry, Poe's significance is
not obscure, nor his work dimmed by
the faults and misf0rtunes of his life.
The obvious lessons of that pathetic
career seek the deeper things for
which this fatally endowed spirit
stood; for the light is more than the
medium through which it shines.
Poe's work holds a higher place in
our literature, not by reason of its
mass, its reality, its range, it's spirit
ual or ethical significance, but by
reason of its complete and beautiful
individuality, the distinction of it's
form and workmanship, the purity of
it's art. AS the author of THE Raw
en-" THE Bells" ant" Annabel Lee"
Poe has place among the leading
American poets which will always re-
main secure. "Lenore" and Never
more will forever echo into the fut-
ure, and that beautiful poem written
in memory of his Sweet Virginia.
the invalid wife, whom he adored and
over whom he watched with such pa
thetic tenderness-that ''tuneful
dirge," "Annabel Lee" can never be
forgotten. These lines are still play
ing sweet, sad music in our hearts,
"And neither the angels in heaven
above,
Nor the demons down under the
sea,
Can ever discover my soul from the
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without
bringing me dreams
OF the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but | feel
the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee
We feel an especial interest in Poe
bebecause he was a southerner. AL
though born in Boston, he always re-
garded himself and was regarded by
others as a southerner. He has long
been accepted as the foremost rep
+, resentative of the south in our litera-
ture. His temperament had much
in common with the southern tenn
| permanent, and today the southland
feels proud to claim Edgar Allen Poe
as her own. Until Poe began his
brief and sad career, the genius of
the south had found expression chief
ly in the shaping of national affairs.
In him, however, it seemed to pass
abruptly from great affairs of state
into the regions of pure imagination.
In THE City in the Sea" Israel"
and the charming verses ITO
Helen" there is complete detachment
from the earlier interests and occupa-
lions, and complete escape into he
world of ideality. This is beautifully
! illustrated in the following lines:.-
/ Helen, thy beauty is to me
| Like those Nicean banks of yore,
| That gently, DER a perfumed sea,
The weary, way-worn wanderer
bore
To his own native shore"
Poetry was, with Poe, a passion.
lie defined it as the ''rhythmical craa-
| ton of beauty" He believed that
the truth appealed to and gave ex-
preston to the intellect; passion
stirred the heart; but beauty was The
natural speech of the soul; beauty
was therefore, the expression of the
deepest part of mans nature, the I'M
mortal part. Throughout his poetry
is seen his passionate longing for
beauty-beauty in all things. In the
Raven" he conceives the highest
tone of beauty to be sadness, caused
by the pathos of existence and our in
ability to grasp the unknown. Of all
beauty that of beautiful woman is
supremest, her death is the saddest
loss-and, therefore. the most poet
ical topic in the world
Poe is distinctively and in a unique
sense the artist in our literature-the
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