THE FREE LANCE.
"His goon blade carves the casques of men, for the Free Lance
thrusteth sure."
VoL. XVII.
THE PERSONALITY IN THE POETRY OF EDGAR
ALLEN POE.
(Prize Essay—Free Lance competition.)
Poetry is the outburst of an ardent passion, and the very name
of poet presupposes an impressionable soul ; and since such is its
nature it ever bears—must ever bear—in a greater or less degree
the impress of the personality of the author.
It is a salient fact in the history of the literary great that much
of their success is due to a personality apparent in their writings.
An author's works are so essentially the children of his thought
that his own individuality insensibly creeps into them, so that
they are invariably' tinged with the color of his outer or inner life.
This I think is to be ascribed to a tendency toward the real which
is a marked feature of all professions. The artist strives to invest
the canvas with that which will glow with life and rival nature
herself ; the actor aims to represent the passions and emotions he
depicts as the genuine outburst of real feeling ; the author since
he combines in his word-painting the province of both is of neces
sity subject to a similar impulse. And since the imitation or reality
is his object, what can he portray more faithfully than the ex
perience of his own life ? Byron's page is chiefly autobiographi
cal ; the pulse of his mental and physical existence throbs in every
stanza he wrote. The most tender and beautiful descriptions of
Dickens are but a happy rendering of emotions excited by some
APRIL, 1903.
No. 1.