SOURCE: Allen, James Lane. “Night Shadows in Poe's Poetry.” The Continent 5, no. 4 (23 January 1884): 102-04.

In the following essay, Allen examines the preponderance of night imagery in Poe's poetry.

The appearance of an important biography of Poe in France and the preparation of still another in America, the publication of his most widely-read poem with illustrations by Doré, and the prospective unveiling of a memorial tablet to his honor, seem to furnish a fit occasion for inviting attention to a striking but hitherto unnoted characteristic of his poetry. In fact, with the exception of a comparatively few closeted minds, the attention of the world has thus far been riveted upon the overwhelming sorrows of Poe's lot, the mysterious inequalities of his moods, and the phenominal aspects of his career, rather than devoted to the critical examination of his works. The retributive swing of the human mind, also, naturally bore...