Text: James A. Harrison, “Ninth Letter,” The Last Letters of Edgar Allan Poe to Sarah Helen Whitman (1909), p. 45

[page 45:]

[Fragments of a letter received from Edgar Poe in the beginning of January, 1849. A letter to which I never replied.

Mrs. Whitman's own note. — C. F. D.]

HEAVEN knows that I would shrink from wounding or grieving you. I blame no one but your mother. Mr. Pabodie will tell you all. May Heaven shield you from all ill.

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