Poe was such a bright young man that it seemed a pity for him to remain in the ranks, when he might become an officer; therefore it was suggested that he be sent to West Point.  Mr. Allan agreed to help him; but it is said that, after the death of Mrs. Allan, he no longer entertained any affection for Edgar.  In a letter to the Secretary of War, he said:  “Frankly, sir, I do declare that he is no relation to me whatever; that I have many in whom I have taken an active interest to promote theirs; with no other feeling than that, every man is my care, if he be in distress.  For myself I ask nothing, but I do request your kindness to aid this youth in the promotion of his future prospects.”

Poe did not like the life at West Point in the least, though he amused his mates by writing satirical verses about the professors.  After a few months he asked to be discharged; but Mr. Allan would not consent.  So Poe made up his mind that he would have himself expelled.  He stayed away from parade, roll-call, and guard duty.  As a court-martial was then in session, he was summoned before it.  He denied the most flagrant charge against him; but this only made his case worse, and he was expelled from the academy.

CHAPTER VI

LIVING BY LITERATURE

Once more the young poet found himself cast out on the world, without home or friends.  He could hope for nothing more from Mr. Allan, after his disgrace at the military academy, and he had found out that army life was not so fine a refuge from starvation as he had thought it.  He was a proud, melancholy young man, and in school and college had learned many bad habits.  He had no trade nor practical knowledge of any kind of work, though he was quick and ingenious.  He had studied the art of writing, and this alone offered him the means of earning a livelihood.  How poor and precarious a chance it was, we shall see as we go on.

While waiting for appointment to the Military Academy the preceding year, Poe had made acquaintance with his father’s relatives in Baltimore.  He formed some literary connections there, and had a volume of his poems published.  It was entitled “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems, by Edgar A. Poe.”  “Al Aaraaf” was a poem about a star that a great astronomer had seen blaze forth and then disappear.

When he left West Point in April, 1831, nearly two years after the publication of his Baltimore volume, Poe was short of money; and to supply his needs his fellow-students subscribed for a new edition of his poems.  For this, seventy-five cents was stopped out of the pay of each, and a publisher in New York agreed to issue the book in good style.  The cadets thought his volume would contain the many funny squibs he had written on the professors; but they were disappointed.

Poe next went to Baltimore.  There he tried to get employment in vain.  Friends helped him, but it was some time before he made his first literary success.