Norwich bulletin., 1922-07-03
Great Mems Love Letters
POE TO VIRGINIA oIz,us

Edgar Allen Poe was of particularly sentimental turn of mind, almost morbid ly so. and his love affairs and their term ination cover a considerable, period of the most interesting part of his life. His first attachment was for Mrs. Helen Stsnnard. the mother of one of his seheoImates He was only a little more than fifteen years old at the, time She died soon after wards and was buried In Richmond. When Poe was only seventeen he fell in love with Elmira Royster and they considered themselves engaged. He wrote to her frequently but her father broke off the engagement on account of their youth. After he was dismissed | from West Point he visited his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, who lived in Baltimore. and there he met his cousin, Virginia, whom
 he later married. Poe often said: q
 see no one so beautiful as my sweeet lit- l tie wife"
 1 Here is specimen of the character of I letters Poe was in the habit of writing
 to his wife:
 My dear Heart-My dear Virginia | Our mother will explain to you why stay away from you tonight. trust the 1 interview am promised will result in some substantial good for me-for your l | in all hopefulness, and trust yet a little
 longer. On my last great disappointment
 I should have lost my colrage, but for | you-ny little darling wife. You are nay | greatest and only stimulus now, to battle l with the upeongenial, unsatisfactory life. T shall be with you tomorrow P. M, and be assured until I see you will keep in loving remembrance your last words and your fervent prayer: Sleep well, and | x1d nf VA naa0affI anr i with your devoted-EdgaF."
 When this letter was written Mrs. Poe was i'll and the fear of her loss haunted the poet by night and day. It was this
 anxiety for Virginia to which Poe <attri- buted his failure to withstand his appetite
 for stimulants However this may be, , hi sdissipation lost for him the editorshir
 of ''Graham's'' and after doing some desul- . tory litezary work and delivering few lectures. suffering, much from poverty Poe and his wife and mother went tc New York in April. 1s44. Three years
 later Virginia died, and after 1t was al
 over Poe fell i'll and lay in a stupol for several days.
 It was the thought of his wife and hi; loss that prompted his heart through hi
 mind to write:
 For the moon never beams withou bringing me dreams,
 Of my beautiful Annabel Lee; : And the stars never rise but see tn bright eyes
 Of my beautiful Annabei Lee.
 And so all the night-tide lie by the sid
 Of my darling, my darling, my life an
 my bride,
 : In her sepulchre there by the sea- g In her tomb by the sounding sea" f Later in the winter of this year Mir q Sarah Helen whitman, of Providence, y l., came into his life. Poe had been In 3 trodueed to her by an English lady. H 2 told her of his love, but she sent hir It away promising to write. In answer { IS her first letter in part, he said: T hay $ pressed your letter again and again e my lips, sweetest Helen, bathing it It tears of joys, or of divine despair e Your hand rested within mine an y my soul shook with tremulous ecstacy Il and then, but for the fear of grievir l. or weunding you. would have fallen {
 your feet in as real a worship as evs
 was offered to idol or to God" -a1 Mrs. Whitman steadfastly refused ir marry Poe. Later when Poe went sout ,s to Richmond for his health he renewe ,f his acquaintance with Mrs. Shelton, no
 a widow, who was Eimira Reysten h
 first love. He offered marriage to h' II and she accepted him. This was in 1s4 F Shortly afterward- he started north to a T range for the wedding and met rnyster ous death in Baltimore on October
 1S4s.