OP ARTS AND SCIENCES. 99 



pass from under the spell and glamour of it, is hollow and mer- 

 etricious. It is distinctly inferior to his prose, which, I think, 

 will far outlive his verse. 



Thus the artist, not to say the artisan, is predominant in Poe. 

 He was a literary artisan of high and strong qualities, amount- 

 ing to genius in that sort. Realizing the man's nature and lim- 

 itations, his skill is marvelous, his technique admirable. He 

 was conscious of his gift and was not unnaturally impatient of 

 those who did not recognise its value. His literary sensibilities 

 were so fine as to become a kind of conscience. His art is the 

 art of words. His mind revelled in sounds, in images, in sense- 

 suggestions. His poetry shows the iridescent beauty and also 

 the thinness of a bubble. What he most cared for was not that 

 for which words stand, but the words themselves, their musical 

 and emotional value, their direct and immediate impressive- 

 ness. 



The positive artistic qualities of Poe's style, therefore, best 

 repay careful study. Briefly, we may indicate them as follows : 

 (a) The ner^^ousness of his st^/le. It is crisp, sharp, keen and 

 yet quiet in the " Tales," dreamy, languorous, gem-like in the 

 "Poems," but in both it is intense. It is the mind at high 

 pressure, spirited and energetic. He threw himself vigorously 

 into the work of composition. The labor was not hurried, but 

 intense. One can realize how such nervous application must 

 have exhausted and prostrated him. His v/riting is unrelieved 

 by a filling of the ordinary and the commonplace, such as lesser 

 men use. Even when the words are simple and calm, there is 

 intellectual passion behind them. There is little of the nitro- 

 gen element in his manner of composition ; it is almost pure ox- 

 ygen. We feel that he was incapable of any extended work. 

 The tension was too great. But he was master of the straight 

 and simple path to a single powerful sentiment, emotion or idea. 

 Each of his tales moves irresistibly to the concentrated energy 

 of a true climax. 



(b) The fastidiousness of his style. Contrary to a general 

 impression, he was never slovenly. His temper was impatient, 



