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doubt. Allan was now not at all convinced that the young man was serious about a military career, and accused him of shiftiness and prevarication. He was also enraged by Poe's requests for more money, in order to procure a substitute for his service at Fortress Monroe. Poe wrote that, while in Baltimore, one of his cousins had stolen money from his pockets. It must have seemed to Allan that his demands would never cease. In a letter to him of this period, Poe declared that “I would have returned home immediately but for the words in your letter ‘I am not particularly anxious to see you.’ ”
    He was happy to remain in Baltimore for a specific reason. He had retrieved the manuscript of his poetry from Carey, Lea & Carey, offering it instead to the Baltimore publishing firm of Hatch and Dunning. To his delight, it was accepted.
Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems
by Edgar A. Poe was published in December 1829. In some respects it is a reprise of
Tamerlane,
published two years earlier. But there are many new poems, among them “Al Aaraaf” itself, which owes as much to Milton as to the Romantics. The newly published poems once more evince Poe's mastery of form and cadence; his characteristics are those of intensity aligned with indefiniteness, of lyricism melting into morbidity.
    There was one particular person to whom he had yet to prove himself. Poe wrote to his foster father announcing the publication, and one of the publishers, Mr. Dunning, promised to present a copy of the volume to Allan in person.
    For the first time, Poe received praise for his accomplishment. John Neal, the editor of the
Yankee and Boston Literary Gazette,
having been sent some poems in advance of publication, wrote that if he “would but do himself justice he might make a beautiful and perhaps a magnificent poem.” Poe was always immensely susceptible to praise, and wrote a reply to Neal in which he stated that “I am young—not yet twenty—
am
a poet—if deep worship of all beauty can make me
one…
” He added that “I have no father—nor mother.” This insistence upon his status asan orphan was another way of gaining sympathy and attention.
    Poe probably wished to stay in Baltimore, but he was miserably poor. Poetry could not save him from destitution. There is a record of his selling one of Mrs. Clemm's slaves in December 1829, but in the early months of 1830 he was forced to return to the Allan household. There was nowhere else to go except to Richmond. There he was tolerated rather than welcomed, with the clear understanding that he would be departing for West Point in a relatively short time. The atmosphere in the house was not pleasant, and in a letter to Sergeant Graves, one of his creditors, he confessed that “I have tried to get the money for you from Mr. A[llan] a dozen times—but he always shuffles me off.” He also remarked that “Mr. A is not very often sober,” an accusation that would later rebound against him.
    Poe left Richmond in the middle of May 1830. He told Allan in a subsequent letter that “when I parted from you—at the steamboat, I knew that I should never see you again.” He stopped at Baltimore for a day or so, and then went on to West Point. The United States Military Academy, built on a green plain, on high ground some two hundred feet above the Hudson River in New York State, had been established in 1804 for the training of officers. Charles Dickens in his
American Notes
described it as a “beautiful place: the fairest among the fair and lovely highlandsof the river: shut in by deep green heights and ruined forts, and looking down upon the distant town of Newburgh, along a glittering path of sunlit water, with here and there a skiff…”
    Poe was lodged with three other cadets at 28 South Barracks, and was paid an allowance of $16 per month. The young poet wore a uniform of blue cloth, with a single-breasted coat; his cap sported a cockade; and he wore his sword in a frog belt under his