Poets of the South | Page 8

fell in love
with an English actress, and forsook the bar for the stage. The couple
were duly married, and acted with moderate success in the principal
towns and cities of the country. It was during an engagement at Boston
that the future poet was born, January 19, 1809. Two years later the
wandering pair were again in Richmond, where within a few weeks of
each other they died in poverty. They left three children, the second of
whom, Edgar, was kindly received into the home of Mr. John Allan, a

wealthy merchant of the city.
[Illustration: EDGAR ALLAN POE.]
The early training of Poe was misguided and unfortunate. The boy was
remarkably pretty and precocious, and his foster-parents allowed no
opportunity to pass without showing him off. After dinner in this
elegant and hospitable home, he was frequently placed upon the table
to drink to the health of the guests, and to deliver short declamations,
for which he had inherited a decided talent. He was flattered and
fondled and indulged in every way. Is it strange that under this training
he acquired a taste for strong drink, and became opinionated and
perverse?
In 1815 Mr. Allan went to England with his family to spend several
years, and there placed the young Edgar at school in an ancient and
historic town, which has since been swallowed up in the overflow of
the great metropolis. The venerable appearance and associations of the
town, as may be learned from the autobiographic tale of William
Wilson, made a deep and lasting impression on the imaginative boy.
After five years spent in this English school, where he learned to read
Latin and to speak French, he was brought back to America, and placed
in a Richmond academy. Without much diligence in study, his
brilliancy enabled him to take high rank in his classes. His skill in
verse-making and in debate made him prominent in the school. He
excelled in athletic exercises, but was not generally popular among his
fellow-students. Conscious of his superior intellectual endowments, he
was disposed to live apart and indulge in moody reverie. According to
the testimony of one who knew him well at this time, he was
"self-willed, capricious, inclined to be imperious, and though of
generous impulses, not steadily kind, or even amiable."
In 1826, at the age of seventeen, Poe matriculated at the University of
Virginia, and entered the schools of ancient and modern languages.
Though he attended his classes with a fair degree of regularity, he was
not slow in joining the fast set. Gambling seems to have become a
passion with him, and he lost heavily. His reckless expenditures led Mr.

Allan to visit Charlottesville for the purpose of inquiring into his habits.
The result appears not to have been satisfactory; and though his
adopted son won high honors in Latin and French, Mr. Allan refused to
allow him to return to the university after the close of his first session,
and placed him in his own counting-room.
It is not difficult to foresee the next step in the drama before us. Many a
genius of far greater self-restraint and moral earnestness has found the
routine of business almost intolerably irksome. With high notions of his
own ability, and with a temper rebellious to all restraint, Poe soon
broke away from his new duties, and started out to seek his fortune. He
went to Boston; and, in eager search for fame and money, he resorted to
the rather unpromising expedient of publishing, in 1827, a small
volume of poems. Viewed in the light of his subsequent career, the
volume gives here and there an intimation of the author's genius; but, as
was to be expected, it attracted but little attention. He was soon reduced
to financial straits, and in his pressing need he enlisted, under an
assumed name, in the United States army. He served at Fort Moultrie,
and afterward at Fortress Monroe. He rose to the rank of sergeant major;
and, according to the testimony of his superiors, he was "exemplary in
his deportment, prompt and faithful in the discharge of his duties."
In 1829, when his heart was softened by the death of his wife, Mr.
Allan became reconciled to his adopted but wayward son. Through his
influence, young Poe secured a discharge from the army, and obtained
an appointment as cadet at West Point. He entered the military
academy July 1, 1830, and, as usual, established a reputation for
brilliancy and folly. He was reserved, exclusive, discontented, and
censorious. As described by a classmate, "He was an accomplished
French scholar, and had a wonderful aptitude for mathematics, so that
he had no difficulty in preparing his recitations in his class, and in
obtaining the highest marks in these departments. He was a devourer of
books;