Girls High School - Yearbook (Reading, PA)

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The Most, Tragic Figure Among Ameri- can Men of Letters Alumni Prize Essay. Elizabeth Getz- Di UST across the Mason-Dixon Line, in the heart of the sleepy old town J of Baltimore, is the deserted grave of the most pathetic and tragic figure in all the history of American literature. That deserted grave marks the end of a great life-an integral life-a life filled to over- flowing with deepest anguish and heart-rending suffering! Nietzsche says, It is in the school of suffering-of intense suffering-that has been created every great thing which humanity has produced. Edgar Allan Poe cer- tainly spent the greater part of his tragic eventful life in that same bitter school! Born of a morally and physically unhealthy union, that of a loose Bohemian ingenue and a wayward self-indulged aristocrat, poor Poe had the curse of hereditary instincts and tendencies to batttle against. His child- hood, too, was a most unhappy one! The theatrical profession was, in those days, far from highly remunerative, and the improvident Poes and their three small children, William, Edgar and Rosalie, often felt the sharp pinch of poverty. When Edgar was but three years old, his little mother died, and he was adopted by the John Allans of Baltimore as an orphan waif. The Allans were young and childless, and made a great pet of the attractive, bright- eyed, curly-haired little boy, whom they had taken into their comfortable home. Unfortunately, their love for Edgar was simply the pride of pos- session, they had none of the finer parental love, which would have meant sn much! more to a little poet. Miraculously realizing their deficiency in this, they foolishly attempted to make up for it in lavishing untold sums of pocket- money on a mere baby. This early indulgence proved the .beginning of Poe's end! Poe was much like any other little boy while he was at school, although he was unusually quiet and retiring. Some of his early schoolfellows once said of him, No one knew him, and this expresses exactly his unhappy solitary state. His unfortunate parentage had formed an unbridgeable gulf between himself and the children with whom he was thrown in contact. He was socially ostracized for his parents' indiscretions! The realization of this hung over him like an ominous cloud and the supersensitive youth suffered untold agonies at the hands of his social, though not intellectual, superiors. While Poe was a mere youth of fourteen, he was invited to the home of a schoolfellow for a visit. There he met -the boy's mother, Jane Sith Standard, and her responsive sympathy and sweet gracious tenderness imme- diately endeared her to the heart of this lonely little boy, hungry for the mother-love which had always been denied him. Even this purely ideal . 13

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And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue Kissed them and put them there. Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand Each in the same old place, Awaiting the touch of .a little hand, The smile of a little face And they wonder as waiting the long years through, In the dust of that little chair, y What has become of the Little Boy Blue Since he kissed them and put them there? Field is the beloved poet that he is, because in him we Hnd not only our aspirations but ourselves. ln him dawned the consciousness of greater powers that urged him on to higher effort. Before this genius we stand awed and our aspirations leap upward, but in our hearts ahides everlasting the love which his songs and sympathy with humanity have stirred. For a greater lover of humanity never lived nor one more in tune with the world for whom he wrote. His love knew no hounds, it extended to all and in return he was allowed to taste freely of the cup of happiness during his lifetime. Rosewell Field has it, What greater assurance can there be of happiness in that life where all is weighed in the scale of love, and love is triumphant, eternal? So we American people, instead of worshiping at the shrine of foreign poets, let us turn our devotion to the great men of our own lands. Never, can we requite the wondrous gift Eugene Field has left to the world. 'tTho' fame dies and honors perish, loving kindness is immortal, and Eugene Field will ever he welcomed in the hearts of the people as Eugene Field, the Beloved. Eugene Field and His Dolls From the EUGENE FIELD BOOK . Byypermission of Charles Scribner's Sons. 12

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1. love, too, was denied him, for Mrs. Standard died soon afterward and the tale, with all its typically Poesque atmosphere, that Poe haunted her grave by night, soon originated. This, however, has been practically disproven. His first really mortal love was for a neighborjs daughter, Sara Elmira Royster. Miss Royster's father, on account of the extreme youth of the lovers, intercepted all the letters which Poe sent from the University of Virginia, where he was matriculating. The affair soon came to an un- happy close. While at the university, Poe's superabundance of pocket-money first led him into serious trouble. lt was there that the Hrst seeds of a passion for strong drink and gambling were sown. Poe drank and gambled heavily the was young and probably affected a rejected lover's recklessnessj, and soon Mr. Allan brought him home from the university without honoring S2,500 of gambling debts. Poe's career at West Point was much the same. A creature of impulse, he was utterly oblivious or indifferent to military law and order. His failure to observe military orders and his neglect of routine duties finally caused him to be dismissed from the school. This incident settled his career, and liter- ature became his ruling passion. Mr. Allan was thoroughly disgusted with his adopted son's misbehavior, and Poe was forced to leave his homie forever. Y fi Poe then went to Baltimore to live with his father's sister, Mrs. Clemm. She was a poor widow, and Poe's writings brought no magnihcent sums into the family coffers. Nevertheless, this thoroughly good 'woman made her nephew welcome, and hers was the first real home he had ever known. Mrs. Clemm's little daughter, Virginia, completed the little family, and it was a pathetically, almost foolishly, happy one, in .spite of its poverty. Edgar Allan Poe was by no means effeminate, but his poetic nature had always drawn him towards women rather than men. His flirtations fso lucklessly begun with Miss Roysterj were continued with a sixteen-year-old Miss Herring, a friend of Virginia Clemm. Poor Poe! Miss.-Herring's father proved quite as unsympathetic as Miss Rcyster's, and the affair reached the usual unhappy termination. Up to this time Poe had published several volumes of verses and his moral conduct ,according to Mrs. Clemmj was beyond reproach. He looked the poet, thoroughly, and many of his companions of a coarser fibre mistook his refinement for effeminacy, for Poe had always fascinated women, who were naturally drawn to him by his quick sympathy and affectionate dis- position. Poe's next affair was with an unknown lady living in the neighborhood. The flirtation began with a series of handkerchief signals, and ended with Poe's cowhiding the young lady's uncle and having himself severely criticized and ridiculed by society and the press. 14