Stedman in "Poets of America."- Stedman, one of our foremost critics, admirably characterizes Whittier's poetry : "In recognition of a beautiful character, critics have not found it needful to measure this native bard with tape and calipers. His service and the spirit of it offset the blemishes which it is their wont to condemn in poets whose exploits are merely technical. A life is on his written page; these are the chants of a soldier and anon the hymnal of a saint. . . . Whittier's audience has been won by unaffected pictures of the scenes to which he was bred by the purity of his nature and even more by the earnestness audible in his songs, injurious as it sometimes is to their artistic purpose." SUGGESTIONS FOR READING Snow-Bound, The Barefoot Boy, In School-Days, Maud Muller, Ichabod, The Lost Occasion, Skipper Ireson's Ride, Laus Deo, Cassandra Southwick, Barbara Frietchie, The Pipes of Lucknow, Telling the Bees, Mabel Martin, Burns, Randolph of Roanoke, The Eternal Goodness, Barclay of Ury. HELPFUL BOOKS S. T. Pickard's Life and Letters of John Greenleaf Whittier. Birth and Family. While David Poe and his wife were playing an engagement at the Federal Street Theater in Boston, their son Edgar was born January 19, 1809. The father was a son of General David Poe of Revolutionary fame, whose home was in Baltimore. In opposition to the wishes of his family, he had abandoned the study of law and had become an actor of humble parts. His wife, who had considerable talent, was the daughter of an English actress, Mrs. Arnold. This unfortunate couple, because of their professional engagements and lack of money, were unable to bestow upon Edgar the care that he needed, the mother being compelled to resume her acting when he was only three weeks old. His father died when Edgar was about two years of age, and on December 8, 1811, his mother died in Richmond in utter poverty, leaving three children to the care of strangers. Edgar was adopted by Mr. John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant of Richmond, whose wife had taken a fancy to the boy's winning face, and henceforth he was to be known as Edgar Allan Poe. Education. — In 1815 Mr. Allan sailed with his family for England and Edgar was sent to school at Stoke-Newington, near London. The remark of Dr. Bransby that his parents spoiled him by allowing him an extravagant amount of pocket money shows that, while Edgar had more creature comforts than in his infant home, he still lacked that of which he was most in need, -discipline and training. On the return of the Allans to Richmond in 1820, Edgar was placed in a classical school that he might be prepared for college. He proved to be a keen and clever student. He also excelled in athletic sports, but, being very reserved and moody, he was not popular with his schoolmates. His morbid sensitiveness increased from year to year, and became one of the banes of his life. In 1826 Poe entered the University of Virginia, recently founded by Jefferson at Charlottesville. His collegiate course was suddenly terminated in December of the same year because of his irregular habits, and Mr. Allan decided that it would be better to place Edgar at a desk in his own counting-room. Military Service. In his eighteenth year, tiring of the restraints of office work, Poe left Richmond without Mr. Allan's consent and went to Boston, |