Edgar Poe was buried in the family grave of his grandfather, General Poe, in the presence of a few friends and relatives.  On the 17th November, 1875, his remains were removed from their first resting-place and, in the presence of a large number of people, were placed under a marble monument subscribed for by some of his many admirers.  His wife’s body has recently been placed by his side.

The story of that “fitful fever” which constituted the life of Edgar Poe leaves upon the reader’s mind the conviction that he was, indeed, truly typified by that: 

“Unhappy master, whom unmerciful disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore—­ Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of ‘Never—­nevermore.’”

JOHN H. INGRAM.

* * * * *

Poems of later life

To

The noblest of her sex—­
to the author of
“The drama of Exile”—­

To

Miss Elizabeth Barrett Barrett,

OfEngland,

I dedicate this volume

With the most enthusiastic admiration and
with the most sincere esteem.

1845 E.A.P.

* * * * *

PREFACE.

These trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going at random the “rounds of the press.”  I am naturally anxious that what I have written should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all.  In defence of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent upon me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself.  Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice.  With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence:  they must not—­they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.

1845.  E.A.P.

* * * * *

THE RAVEN.

  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
  Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—­
  While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
  As of some one gently rapping—­rapping at my chamber door. 
  “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—­
          Only this and nothing more.”

  Ah, distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December,
  And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 
  Eagerly I wished the morrow;—­vainly I had sought to borrow
  From my books surcease of sorrow—­sorrow for the lost Lenore—­
  For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—­
          Nameless here for evermore.