Text: Eugene L. Didier, “The Poe Monument,” The Poe Cult and Other Poe Papers (1909), pp. 184-199

[page 184:]

For a quarter of a century the author of “The Raven” has been sleeping in the quiet graveyard attached to Westminster church, in the city of Baltimore. Among the beautiful monuments which adorn the fair Monumental City, not even the humblest has been reared in honor of him whose genius the world delights to honor. Baltimore has commemorated the patriot, the soldier, the mechanic; but her most gifted son has hitherto been neglected — as no stone has ever marked the hallowed spot where genius reposes. Strangers have come from distant lands to visit the grave of Poe as to a pilgrim's shrine. They anticipated no difficulty in finding the grave of so distinguished a poet; they expected to be guided to the spot by a suitable monument, and to meet there other admirers of Poe, bending in respect and reverence, perchance plucking a flower, a leaf, a twig, from the well-kept grave. Great has been the astonishment of these distant travellers, when, after much inquiry and diligent search, they at last found the grave of Edgar [page 185:] A. Poe — wretched, forlorn, forsaken spot, in an obscure corner of an obscure churchyard. Rank weeds cover the neglected mound — but none of the violets and roses and pansies which the poet loved.

Such for more than twenty-five years was the last resting place of Edgar A. Poe, until the 17th of November, 1875, when the monument in honor of the poet was dedicated. In striking contrast with this interesting occasion was the scant ceremony, on the dreary Autumn afternoon, twenty-six years before, when the mortal remains of the author of the Raven were privately buried among his ancestors in Westminster churchyard. On the 8th of October, 1849, single carriage followed the poet's body to the grave. On the 17th of November, 1875, the Poe monument was unveiled in the presence of an immense assemblage representing the wealth and culture of Baltimore. The ceremonies began with the performance of the “Pilgrim's Chorus,” of Verdi, by the Philharmonic Society; followed by a history of the movement which culminated in the erection of the monument. Upon the conclusion of this address, Miss Sara Sigourney Rice, professor of elocution of the Western Female High School of Baltimore, read the letters received from the poets and other distinguished persons [page 186:] who were invited to be present at the unveiling. The orator of the occasion, Prof. Henry E. Shepherd, at that time the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Baltimore, then delivered a scholarly address upon the Character and Literary Genius of Poe, in which he said that in him literary culture and artistic taste were combined with poetic genius, producing the richest and rarest results that any poet in the century had done, and, in those remarkable productions of his genius, the “Raven” and “Annabel Lee,” he attained a graceful mastery over the subtle and delicate metrical forms, even those to whose successful production the spirit of the English tongue is not congenial. After alluding to the frequent tributes to Poe's genius which had appeared in leading British periodicals, the orator went on to say that this “lofty estimate of his powers is not confined to those lands in which the English language is the vernacular speech; it has extended into foreign climes, and aroused appreciative admiration where English literature is imperfectly known and slightly regarded.”

Then followed some personal reminiscences of Poe by Mr. John H. B. Latrobe, a distinguished lawyer of Baltimore. He said: About the year 1832 there was a newspaper in Baltimore called The Saturday Visitor [[Visiter]]. One [page 187:] of its efforts was to procure original tales, and to this end it offered on this occasion two prizes, one for the best story, and the other for the best short poem — $100 for the first, and $50 for the last. The judges appointed by the editor of the Visitor [[Visiter]] were the late John P. Kennedy, Dr. James H. Miller, also deceased, and myself; and accordingly we met, one pleasant afternoon in October, 1833. As I happened to be the youngest of the three, I was requested to open the packages of poetry and prose, respectively, and read the contents. Alongside of me was a basket to hold what we might reject. Most of the manuscripts were namby-pamby in the extreme, and the committee had about made up their minds that there was nothing to which they could award a prize, when I noticed a small quarto bound book that had, until then, accidentally escaped attention, possibly because’ so unlike externally the bundles of manuscripts it was to compete with. Opening it, an envelope with a motto corresponding with one in the book appeared, and we found that our prose examination was still incomplete. Instead of the common manuscript, the writing was in Roman characters — an imitation. As I read we all became deeply interested, and I was constantly interrupted by such exclamations as “Capital, “excellent,” [page 188:] “how odd,” and the like. There was genius in every line, there was no uncertain grammar, no feeble phraseology; no ill-placed punctuation, no worn-out truisms, no strong thought elaborated into weakness. Logic and imagination were combined in rare consistency. When the reading was completed, there was a difference of choice; but finally the committee selected “A Manuscript found in a Bottle.” One of the series was called “A Descent into the Maelstrom,” and this was at one time preferred. There must have been six or eight tales in all. The statement in Dr. Griswold's life prefixed to the common edition of Poe's works, that “it was unanimously decided by the committee that the prize should be given to the first of geniuses who had written legibly — not another manuscript was unfolded,” is absolutely untrue. The selection Being made, and the $100 prize awarded because of the unquestionable genius and great originality of the writer, we were at liberty to open the envelope that identified him, and there we found, in the note whose motto corresponded with that on the little volume, the name of Edgar A. Poe.

Mr. Poe called at my office the following Monday to thank me, as one of the committee, for the award in his favor. I asked him then if he was occupied with any literary labor. [page 189:] He replied that he was engaged in a voyage to the moon! and at once began to describe the journey with so much animation that for all that I now remember, I may have fancied myself the companion of his aerial journey. When he had finished his description, he apologized for his excitability, which he laughed at himself. Dr. Griswold's statement “that Mr. Kennedy accompanied Poe to a clothing store and purchased for him a respectable suit, with a change of linen, and sent him to a bath” is a sheer fabrication. I never saw Poe again.

At the close of Mr. Latrobe's address the assemblage withdrew from the hall and went to the churchyard, where the interesting ceremony of unveiling the Monument took place. This was performed by Miss Sara S. Rice, who, from first to last, had taken the most active interest in the erection of the monument. She was assisted by the ladies who took part in the first literary entertainment in aid of the Poe Monument Association, in the Autumn of 1865. As the drapery gracefully fell from the marble, the Philharmonic Society of Baltimore, composed of one hundred of the best singers in the city, chanted a dirge which had been composed for the occasion by Mrs. Eleanor A. Fullerton.

The dirge was listened to in silence, and with [page 199:] bowed heads, by the immense assemblage. As the voices died away, Mrs. James A. Oates, who was then performing at Ford's Opera House, and in behalf of the joint companies of the theatres of Baltimore, placed a magnificent crown on the top of the monument.

The monument is made of the purest white marble from Maryland quarries. It stands upon a granite base about eight feet high, and is placed over the poet's grave in the most conspicuous corner of the cemetery. The monument is simple and chaste, having few ornaments. It recalls in some respects the monument to Shakespeare, recently erected at Victoria Park, Bath, England, though it is superior to this, however, in the simplicity of its design. It also bears a resemblance to the Wordsworth monument at Grasmere, England. It has on one side a finely executed medallion bust of the poet, taken from a photograph copy of an original daguerreotype. It is said to be an excellent likeness. Beneath the bust is inscribed the name, “Edgar Allan Poe.” On the opposite side is the following inscription:

Born January 19th, 1809.

Died October 7th, 1849.