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Updated: June 17, 2025
Edgar Poe, R.H. Button. Inquiries and Opinions, Brander Matthews. "Life of Edgar Allan Poe," Nation, 89: 100-110. "Weird Genius," Cosmopolitan, 46:243-252. Ligeia, Edgar Allan Poe. The Cask of Amontillado, Edgar Allan Poe. The Assignation, Edgar Allan Poe. Ms. Pound in Bottle, Edgar Allan Poe. The Black Cat, Edgar Allan Poe. Berenice, Edgar Allan Poe. The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe.
And as he wandered under the pines or along the river, wrapped in his dreams and wondering thoughts of heaven and earth, or leaned from the window of the chamber under the low sloping roof the chamber that had been the chamber of death and looked beyond the embowering cherry trees upon the sky; or at dead of night sat under his lamp pondering over his books always, everywhere, he listened listened for the voice and the foot-falls of Virginia as he had listened in his earlier days for the voice and the footfalls of the mythical "Ligeia."
The imperfections of his temperament have pierced his poetry and prose, shattered their structure, and blurred their beauty. Only four or five of his poems "The Raven," "Ligeia," the earlier of the two addressed "To Helen," and the sonnet to his wife escape being flawed by some fit of haste, some ungovernable error of taste, some hopeless, unaccountable break in their beauty.
But I think it has been clearly shown that the structure of "Ligeia" is at all points inevitably conditioned by its theme, and that no detail of the structure could be altered without injuring the effect of the story; and I am confident that some intellectual process similar to that which has been outlined must be followed by every author who seeks to construct stories as perfect in form as Poe's.
And this, added to his slight knowledge of anatomy, made all his nude pictures undesirable save those few painted from the beautiful girl who stood for ‘The Spirit of the Rainbow’ and ‘Forced Music.’ What his work from the nude suffered from this is incalculable, as may be seen in the crayon called ‘Ligeia Siren,’ a naked siren playing on a kind of lute, which Rossetti described as “certainly one of his best things.” The beauty and value of a crayon which for weird poetry—especially in the eyes—must be among Rossetti’s masterpieces are ruined by the drawing of the breasts.
"Here then, at least," I shrieked aloud, "can I never can I never be mistaken these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes of my lost love of the lady of the LADY LIGEIA." Itself, by itself, solely, one everlasting, and single. WITH a feeling of deep yet most singular affection I regarded my friend Morella.
But these absurdities must not pause to detail. Let me speak only of that one chamber, ever accursed, whither in a moment of mental alienation, I led from the altar as my bride as the successor of the unforgotten Ligeia the fair-haired and blue-eyed Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine.
Yet, although I saw that the features of Ligeia were not of a classic regularity although I perceived that her loveliness was indeed "exquisite," and felt that there was much of "strangeness" pervading it, yet I have tried in vain to detect the irregularity and to trace home my own perception of "the strange."
One, at least, was obviously essential, the person with the superhuman will. For esthetic reasons Poe made this character a woman, and called her Ligeia; but it is evident that structurally the story would have been the same if he had made the character a man. The resultant narrative would have been different in mood and tone; but it would not have been different in structure.
After Poe had, with his intellect, outlined step by step the structure of "Ligeia," he was obliged to confront a further problem, a problem this time more emotional than intellectual the problem of writing the story with the thrilling and enthralling harmony of that low, musical language which haunts us like the echo of a dream.
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