Page 41 - Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Russell Lowell, Bayard Taylor

Stanard, a lovely, gentle, and gracious woman, was thrilled by the
tenderness of her tones and her sympathetic manner toward him, and

immediately made her his boyhood friend and confidante. To his great
grief, however, she died not very long afterward. When she was gone he

visited her grave time after time, and in after years when he was unhappy
he often thought and spoke of her.

CHAPTER IV

COLLEGE LIFE

Poe left the English and Classical School in March, 1825, and spent the
next few months in studying with a private tutor.

On the 14th of February, 1826, he wrote his name and the place and date of
his birth, in the matriculation book of the University of Virginia, the

famous college founded by Jefferson and opened about a year before.

Poe is described at this time as short, thickset, bowlegged, with the rapid

and jerky gait of an English boy. His face, surrounded by dark curly hair,
wore a grave, half-melancholy look; but it would light up expressively

when he talked. He was a noted walker; and being the adopted child of a
rich man, he dressed well and carried himself proudly. He studied Latin,
Greek, French, Spanish, and Italian, and stood well in his classes. At the

end of the year he went home with the highest honors in Latin and French.

Before the term closed, however, Mr. Allan went up to investigate some
stories of Poe’s wildness that had reached him, and found that besides other
debts, Poe owed two thousand dollars in "debts of honor"--that is, gambling

debts. Mr. Allan paid all but the latter, and quietly determined that as soon
as the term closed, Poe’s college life should end.

Poe was, however, a studious and well-behaved young man in the opinion
of the professors, and he was never found guilty of any serious misconduct.

He was fond of wandering over the Ragged Mountains, whither he went