sode at West
Point, as well as the publication of his earliest volume of poems, and
look at him as we find him in the summer of 1833, living in Baltimore.
He had a home here with his father's widowed sister, Mrs. Clemm, who
with her daughter Virginia lived in a very humble way in that city. The
little Poe could earn--for he was then at one of his lowest financial
periods--went into the common stock, and the three struggled along
together. Virginia was a child of eleven, beautiful, delicate, refined;
and Mrs. Clemm was then, as always thereafter, the best and kindest of
friends to the poet. She had little to offer him, save kindness and
motherly love; but she gave these most abundantly, and they were of
priceless value to Poe. For many months he kept himself from his
besetting sin, and worked faithfully at whatever literary work he could
get to do. But he was poor to the point of destitution, and the mental
strain upon him was great, with his extraordinary pride and
sensitiveness. He had been well reared, with fine and delicate tastes,
and accustomed to money; and privation was very bitter to him. He was
naturally an aristocrat, too, and found in the associations to which he
was almost compelled by poverty a heavy cross. At the end of two years
he felt himself forced to leave Baltimore, and thought he could obtain
employment in Richmond. He had become greatly attached to Virginia, and
she was equally so to him; and although she was but a child of thirteen,
Poe proposed to marry her and take her and Mrs. Clemm with him to his
new destination. The youth of Virginia seems to have been the only
obstacle in the mind of Mrs. Clemm, who had conceived the deepest
affection for Poe and had great confidence in his abilities. She was
friendless and unable to take care of herself and her daughter, and
after some hesitation she consented to the marriage. It did not take
place, however, till Virginia was fourteen years old.

Ill-starred and ill-timed as this marriage seemed to be, it was the one
bright and beautiful thing about the life of Poe. He remained
passionately devoted to the youthful wife as long as she lived; and it
is thought by those who knew him best that, despite his numerous
romantic passages with ladies after her death, Virginia was the only
woman he ever really loved. In spite of the bad habits which clung to
him so persistently, he seems to have been a really kind and devoted
husband to the end. She, on her part, wor