The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on PoetryPoe, Edgar Allan
General
The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe: Including Essays on Poetry
Poe, Edgar Allan
Fantasy poetry, American
"I was 'acquainted', with him, but that is about all. My impression
was, and is, that no one could say that he 'knew' him. He wore a
melancholy face always, and even his smile--for I do not ever remember
to have seen him laugh--seemed to be forced. When he engaged
sometimes with others in athletic exercises, in which, so far as high
or long jumping, I believe he excelled all the rest, Poe, with the
same ever sad face, appeared to participate in what was amusement to
the others more as a task than sport."
Poe had no little talent for drawing, and Mr. John Willis states that
the walls of his college rooms were covered with his crayon sketches,
whilst Mr. Boiling mentions, in connection with the poet's artistic
facility, some interesting incidents. The two young men had purchased
copies of a handsomely-illustrated edition of Byron's poems, and upon
visiting Poe a few days after this purchase, Mr. Bolling found him
engaged in copying one of the engravings with crayon upon his dormitory
ceiling. He continued to amuse himself in this way from time to time
until he had filled all the space in his room with life-size figures
which, it is remembered by those who saw them, were highly ornamental
and well executed.
As Mr. Bolling talked with his associate, Poe would continue to scribble
away with his pencil, as if writing, and when his visitor jestingly
remonstrated with him on his want of politeness, he replied that he had
been all attention, and proved that he had by suitable comment,
assigning as a reason for his apparent want of courtesy that he was
trying 'to divide his mind,' to carry on a conversation and write
sensibly upon a totally different subject at the same time.
Mr. Wertenbaker, in his interesting reminiscences of the poet, says:
"As librarian I had frequent official intercourse with Poe, but it was
at or near the close of the session before I met him in the social
circle. After spending an evening together at a private house he
invited me, on our return, into his room. It was a cold night in
December, and his fire having gone pretty nearly out, by the aid of
some tallow candles, and the fragments of a small table which he broke
up for the purpose, he soon rekindled it, and by its comfortable blaze
I spent a very pleasant hour with him. On this occasion he spoke with
regret of the large amount of money he had wasted, and of the debts he
had contracted during the session. If my memory be not at fault, he
estimated his indebtedness at $2,000 and, though they were gaming
debts, he was earnest and emphatic in the declaration that he was
bound by honor to pay them at the earliest opportunity."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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