POE'S CHARACTER.
In order thoroughly to understand Poe, it is necessary that one should
recognize the dominant trait of his character--a trait which affected
and in a measure overruled all the rest--in a word, _weakness of will_.
"Unstable as water," is written upon Poe's every visage in characters
which all might read; in the weak falling away of the outline of the
jaw, the narrow, receding chin, and the sensitive, irresolute mouth.
Above the soul-lighted eyes and the magnificent temple of intellect
overshadowing them, we look in vain for the rising dome of _Firmness_,
which, like the keystone of the arch, should strengthen and bind
together the rest. Lacking this, the arch must be ever tottering to a
fall.
To this weakness of will we may trace nearly every other defect in Poe's
character, together with most of the disappointments and failures in
whatsoever he undertook. He lacked the resolution and persistence
necessary to battle against obstacles, to persevere to the end against
opposition and discouragement, and to resist temptations and influences
which he knew would lead him astray from the object which he had at
heart. In this way he lost many a coveted prize when it seemed almost
within his grasp.
The accepted opinion is that Poe's dissipation was his chief fault, as
it was that to which was owing his ruin in the end. But even this was
the effect chiefly of weakness of will. He was not by nature inclined to
evil, but the contrary; and we have seen that, when left to himself and
not exposed to temptation, he was, from all accounts, "sober,
industrious and exemplary in his conduct." But he lacked firmness to
resist the temptation which, more than in the case of most men, assailed
him on every side.
Dr. William Gibbon Carter has told me how, when Poe was in Richmond on
his last visit, and doing his best to remain sober, he would in his
visits and strolls about the city be constantly greeted by friends and
acquaintances with invitations to "take a julep." It was the custom of
the time. Poe, said Dr. Carter, in one morning declined twenty-four such
invitations, but finally yielded; and the consequence was the severe
illness which threatened his life whilst in the city. The effect of one
glass on him, said the Doctor, was that of several on any other man.
Often he was tempted to drink from an amiable reluctance to decline the
offered hospitality.
A marked peculiarity of Poe's character was the restless discontent
which from his sixteenth year took possession of and clung to him
through life, and was to him a source of much unhappiness. It was not
the discontent of poverty or of ungratified worldly ambition, but the
dissatisfaction of a genius which knows itself capable of higher things,
from which it is debarred--the desire of the caged eagle for the
wind-swept sky and the distant eyrie. He was not satisfied with being a
mere writer of stories. He believed that, with a broader scope, he could
wield a powerful influence over the literary world and make a record for
strength, brilliancy and originality of thought which would render his
name famous in other countries as in this. His desire was to set
established rules and conventionalities at defiance, and to be fearless,
independent, dominant in his assertion of himself and his ideas and
convictions. As an editor writing for other editors, he found himself
trammeled by what he called their narrowness and timidity. He must be
his own master, his own editor; and hence his lifelong dream and desire
took form in the conception of the Stylus--that _ignis fatuus_ which he
pursued to the last day of his life--uncertain, elusive, yet ever
eagerly sought, and always ending in disappointment and bitterness of
soul. Time and again it seemed within his grasp, and, as he exultantly
proclaimed, "his prospects glorious," when, by his own weakness of will,
it was lost to him.
Undoubtedly, one of the chief factors in the non-success of Poe's life
and its consequent unhappiness was his marriage.
Setting aside the poetic imaginings which have been and doubtless will
continue to be written concerning this marriage as one of idylic mutual
love and "idolatry," the story, in the light of established facts,
resolves itself into a very prosaic one.
Mr. John Mackenzie, Poe's lifelong and only intimate and confidential
friend, never hesitated to say that had Poe been left to himself the
idea would never have occurred to him of marrying his little
child-cousin. In no transaction of his life was his pitiable weakness
more manifest than in this feeble yielding of himself to the dominant
will of a mother-in-law.
Had Poe remained single or have married another than Virginia, his
regard for her would have continued just what it had been in the
beginning and what it remained to the end--the affection of a brother or
cousin for a sweet and lovable child. But no one can believe that Poe's
nature could have found its satisfying in such a marriage; and, in fact,
whatsoever sentimental things he may have written concerning it, his
whole conduct goes to prove its insincerity.
Poe was of all men one who most craved and needed the love and sympathy
of a woman of a nature kindred to his own--a woman of talent and
qualities of mind and heart to appreciate his genius and all that was
best in him; one who would be to him not only a congenial companion, but
a "helpmeet" as well. Had he married one of Mrs. Osgood's tender
sensibilities and feminine charm, or Mrs. Whitman, with her talent and
strong character, or even a woman of the practical good sense and
judgment of Mrs. Shew, who knew so well how to care for him mentally and
physically--Poe would have been a different man.
But his imprudent and, as it has been called, unnatural marriage, cut
him off from what would probably have been the highest happiness of his
life, with its accompanying worldly and social advantages, and bound him
down to a life of unceasing toil, penury and helplessness. It deprived
him of a social position and social enjoyment; for his poverty-stricken
"home" was never one to which he could invite his friends; and he
himself seems never to have found in it any real pleasure, but to have
regarded it merely as a haven of refuge in seasons of distress. But as
the years went by and, despite his incessant toil, his life and his home
grew more cheerless and poverty-stricken, he became hopeless and in a
measure reckless. It is to be noted that it was only after the death of
his wife that he appeared to recover anything like hope or energy. Then
his prospects suddenly brightened in the love of a good and talented
woman who could have made his life happy and prosperous, when, owing to
his miserable weakness of will in yielding to temptation, for which
there was no excuse, it was all at once swept from his grasp.
Mr. John Mackenzie might well have said, as he did, that Poe's marriage
was the greatest misfortune of his life and as a millstone around his
neck, holding him down against every effort to rise. But perhaps not
even this close friend knew how keenly the poet must have felt the
narrowness of his life, the sordidness of his home, and the humiliation
of his poverty. Patiently and uncomplainingly he bore his unhappy lot;
and it is to be noted to his credit that howsoever he might at times go
astray, no word or act of unkindness toward the wife and mother who
loved him was ever known to escape from him.
It will be seen from all that has here been written, in the light of
prosaic truth, that Poe's real character was one very different from
that which it has pleased the world in general to ascribe to
him--judging him as it does by the character of his writings as a poet.
The folly of such judgment, and the extent to which it was until
recently carried, is simply surprising. It is true that he appeared to
have but one ideal--the death of a woman young, lovely and beloved--and
that ideal in the imagining of the world resolved itself into the
personality of his wife. She, they concluded, was the original of all
the Lenores, and Anabel Lees, and Ullalumes, which inspired his
melancholy and despairing lyre; and in its gloom and hopelessness they
could see nothing but the expression of the poet's own nature. As well
have accused Rembrandt of being gloomy and morose because he painted in
dark colors. Like the artist, Poe loved obscure and sombre ideas and
conceptions, and he delighted in embodying these in his poems as much as
Rembrandt did in transferring his own to canvas.
APPENDIX.
NO. 1.
Lest the reader should be under the impression that much of what I
relate concerning Poe's childhood and certain circumstances connected
with his early youth is taken from Gill's _Life of Poe_, I will make an
explanation.
At the time when the first edition of Gill's work was issued I was
engaged in writing what I intended to be a little book concerning Poe,
compiled from my own personal knowledge of him and what I had been told
by others. In some way Gill heard of this, and wrote to me, coolly
requesting to be allowed to see my manuscript, which I, of course,
excused myself from doing. Again and again he wrote, saying that he
"merely wished to see exactly what I had written." In self-defence,
I finally sent him the first part or chapter of the manuscript, he
promising to return it as soon as read. After some weeks it was returned
to me, without a word accompanying; and at the same time a second
edition of Gill's "_Life_" was issued--the first having been
suppressed--in which, to my surprise, I found copious extracts from my
manuscript. All those little anecdotes of Poe's childhood were thus
appropriated, with more important matter--such as Poe's dissipation when
in Richmond and his enlisting in the army, both of which Gill had in his
first edition positively denied; and this he made use of as though it
had been his own original material. My book was, of course, ruined, and
all that I could do was, some years after, to write "_The Last Days of
Poe_," published in _Scribner's Magazine_, though even from this Gill
made "_Notes_" for the Appendix of his second or third edition.
Some of the material thus appropriated by Gill I have reclaimed and
inserted in this work. A comparison between the first and second edition
of Gill's "_Life of Poe_" affords a curious study, since in the second
he has carefully corrected the misstatements of the former from my
manuscript.
My friend, Gen. Roger A. Pryor, late Judge of the Supreme Court of New
York, brought suit against Gill in this matter, but met with so much
trouble and annoyance by reason of the latter's persistence in evading
it, that it was finally, at my own earnest request, abandoned.
Mr. Gill, I am informed, is still living.
NOTE 2.
A strange fate was that of the poet's family, all of whom were indebted
to charity for a last resting place.
His father, David Poe, died in Norfolk in the summer of 1811. His grave
is unknown.
His mother was buried by charity in Richmond, December 9, 1811.
His wife was indebted for a grave near Fordham, in New York, to
charitable contributions of friends.
His sister, Rosalie Mackenzie Poe, died July 14, 1874, and was given a
pauper's grave in the cemetery of the Epiphany Church Home, in
Washington.
Mrs. Clemm, his mother-in-law, died an inmate of the Church Home
Infirmary, Baltimore, and was buried by the charity of friends in
Westminster churchyard of that city in 1871.
Poe himself, whose last days were passed in a charitable institute, was
indebted to relatives for a grave.
Truly a record unparalleled in the annals of Literary History.
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End of Project Gutenberg's The Home Life of Poe, by Susan Archer Weiss