Page "Edgar Allan Poe" Paragraph 22

Increasingly unstable after his wife's death, Poe attempted to court the poet Sarah Helen Whitman, who lived in Providence, Rhode Island.

Their engagement failed, purportedly because of Poe's drinking and erratic behavior.

However, there is also strong evidence that Whitman's mother intervened and did much to derail their relationship.

Poe then returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.