POE, EDGAR ALLAN, an American poet, born in Boston, Massachusetts; a youth of wonderful genius, but of reckless habits, and who came to an unhappy and untimely end; left behind him tales and poems, which, though they were not appreciated when he lived, have received the recognition they deserve since his death; his poetical masterpiece, “The Raven,” is well known; died at Baltimore of inflammation of the brain, insensible from which he was picked up in a street one evening (1809-1849).

POERIO, CARLO, Italian patriot; was conspicuous in the revolutionary movement of 1848; was arrested and banished, but escaped to England, where he was received with sympathy by Mr. Gladstone among others; he rose into power on the establishment of the kingdom of Italy (1803-1867).

POET LAUREATE, the English court poet, an office which dates from the reign of Edward IV., the duty of the holder of it being originally to write an ode on the birthday of the monarch.

POETICAL JUSTICE, ideal justice as administered in their writings by the poets.

POETRY, the gift of penetrating into the inner soul or secret of a thing, and bodying it forth rhythmically so as to captivate the imagination and the heart.

POET’S CORNER, a corner in the SW. transept of Westminster Abbey, so called as containing the tombs of Chaucer, Spenser, and other eminent English poets.

POGGENDORF, JOHANN CHRISTIAN, a German physicist and chemist, born at Hamburg; professor of Physics at Berlin; was the editor for more than half a century of the famous Annalen der Physik und Chimie, and the author of numerous papers (1796-1877).

POGGIO, BRACCIOLINI, an Italian scholar, born in Florence, was a distinguished humanist, and devoted to the revival of classical learning, collecting MSS. of the classics wherever he could find them that might otherwise have been lost, including Quintilian’s “Institutions,” great part of Lucretius, and several orations of Cicero, &c.; wrote a “History of Florence,” where he died; he was the author of a collection of stories and of jests in Latin at the expense of the monks (1380-1459).

POINT DE GALLE (33), a town on a promontory in the SW. of Ceylon, with a good harbour, and the great port of call for the lines of steamers in the Eastern waters.

POISSON, SIMEON-DENIS, a celebrated French mathematician, born at Pithiviers; was for his eminence in mathematical ability and physical research raised to the peerage; wrote no fewer than 300 memoirs (1781-1840).

POITIERS (34), the capital of the dep. of Vienne, 61 m.  SW. of Tours; has a number of interesting buildings, a university and large library; in its neighbourhood Clovis defeated Alaric II. in 507, Charles Martel the Moors in 732, and the Black Prince the troops of King John in 1356.

POITOU, formerly a province in France, lying S. of the Loire, between the Vienne River and the sea; passed to England when its countess, Eleanor, married Henry I., 1152; was taken by Philip Augustus 1205, ceded to England again 1360, and retaken by Charles V. 1369.