inking bout on a visit to Baltimore led to his death from brain fever
in the hospital there. The literary output of P., though not great in
volume, limited in range, and very unequal in merit, bears the stamp of
an original genius. In his poetry he sometimes aims at a musical effect
to which the sense is sacrificed, but at times he has a charm and a magic
melody all his own. His better tales are remarkable for their originality
and ingenuity of construction, and in the best of them he rises to a high
level of imagination, as in _The House of Usher_, while _The Gold
Beetle_ or _Golden Bug_ is one of the first examples of the cryptogram
story; and in _The Purloined Letters_, _The Mystery of Marie Roget_, and
_The Murders in the Rue Morgue_ he is the pioneer of the modern detective
story.

_Life_, Woodberry (American Men of Letters). _Works_ ed. by Woodberry and
Stedman (10 vols.), etc.

POLLOK, ROBERT (1789-1827).--Poet, _b._ in Refrewshire, studied for the
ministry of one of the Scottish Dissenting communions. After leaving the
Univ. of Glasgow he _pub._ anonymously _Tales of the Covenanters_, and in
1827, the year of his untimely death from consumption, appeared his poem,
_The Course of Time_, which contains some fine passages, and occasionally
faintly recalls Milton and Young. The poem went through many ed. in
Britain and America. He _d._ at Shirley, near Southampton, whither he had
gone in search of health.

POMFRET, JOHN (1667-1702).--Poet, _s._ of a clergyman, entered the
Church. He wrote several rather dull poems, of which the only one
remembered, though now never read, is _The Choice_, which celebrates a
country life free from care, and was highly popular in its day.

POPE, ALEXANDER (1688-1744).--Poet, was _b._ in London, of Roman Catholic
parentage. His _f._ was a linen-merchant, who _m._ as his second wife
Edith Turner, a lady of respectable Yorkshire family, and of some
fortune, made a competence, and retired to a small property at Binfield,
near Windsor. P. received a somewhat desultory education at various Roman
Catholic schools, but after the age of 12, when he had a severe illness
brought on by over-application, he was practically self-educated. Though
never a profound or accurate scholar, he had a good knowledge of Latin,
and a working acquaintance with Greek. By 1704 he had written a good deal
of verse, which attracted the attention of Wycherley (_q.v._), who
introduced him to town life and to o