To Helen

…his most touching lyrics (“To Helen,” “Annabel Lee,” “Eulalie,” “To One in Paradise”) and the full-toned prose hymns to beauty and love in “Ligeia” and “Eleonora.” In “Israfel” his imagination carried him away from the material world into a dreamland. This Pythian mood was especially characteristic of the later…

…of his poems entitled “To Helen.” A feverishly romantic literary courtship ensued, and in November they became engaged. Partly owing to Poe’s instability and partly through the intervention of Whitman’s mother, the engagement was broken a month later.