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But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we—

Of many far wiser than we—

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:—

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride

In her sepulchre there by the sea—

In her tomb by the side of the sea.

LETTERS

From more than eight hundred extant letters by Poe, the following selection hints at the complications of his private life and the quirks of his personality. By turns audacious and desperate, hapless and scheming, penitent and indignant, dutiful and dissolute, Poe emerges from these missives as a writer driven to dominate the “republic of letters” in America by sheer force of genius—but also as a man sporadically beset by an urge to ruin his own prospects. From his early, defiant letters to John Allan to his late communications with the women he loved, Poe reveals his impetuous need to control his own destiny—as well as his pathetic inability to do so.

I have edited the letters to produce fully readable versions of correspondence that is sometimes illegible, incomplete, or mutilated. Missing letters and words have been supplied, following the textual reconstructions of John Ward Ostrom. Some interpolated material is bracketed. I have silently corrected misspelled words that invite misreading and have allowed others to stand to reflect Poe’s compositional habits. In his private letters, the author was far less concerned about punctuation, grammar, and usage than in his published writings.

EDGAR ALLAN POE TO JOHN ALLAN

Richmond Monday [March 19, 1827]

Sir,

After my treatment on yesterday and what passed between us this morning, I can hardly think you will be surprised at the contents of this letter. My determination is at length taken—to leave your house and indeavor to find some place in this wide world, where I will be treated—not as you have treated me—This is not a hurried determination, but one on which I have long considered—and having so considered my resolution is unalterable—You may perhaps think that I have flown off in a passion, & that I am already wishing to return; But not so—I will give you the reasons which have actuated me, and then judge—

Since I have been able to think on any subject, my thoughts have aspired, and they have been taught by you to aspire, to eminence in public life—this cannot be attained without a good Education, such a one I cannot obtain at a Primary school—A collegiate Education therefore was what I most ardently desired, and I had been led to expect that it would at some future time be granted—but in a moment of caprice—you have blasted my hope because forsooth I disagreed with you in an opinion, which opinion I was forced to express—Again, I have heard you say (when you little thought I was listening and therefore must have said it in earnest) that you had no affection for me—

You have moreover ordered me to quit your house, and are continually upbraiding me with eating the bread of Idleness, when you yourself were the only person to remedy the evil by placing me to some business—You take delight in exposing me before those whom you think likely to advance my interest in this world—

You suffer me to be subjected to the whims & caprice, not only of your white family, but the complete authority of the blacks—these grievances I could not submit to; and I am gone. I request that you will send me my trunk containing my clothes & books—and if you still have the least affection for me, As the last call I shall make on your bounty, To prevent the fulfillment of the Prediction you this morning expressed, send me as much money as will defray the expences of my passage to some of the Northern cities & then support me for one month, by which time I shall be enabled to place