WHITMAN, SARAH HELEN

POWER (1803-78), American poet, born Providence, Rhode Island. She revealed poetical ability at an early age and contributed verse to many periodicals that met with marked popular favor. At one time she was engaged to Edgar Allen Poe and in 1860 wrote a volume in his defense, entitled Hdgar A. Poe and His Critics. Some of her works were written in conjunction with her sister Anna M. Power. Their most notable joint composition was Fairy Ballads. Her finest individual poem was A Still Day in Autumn. Part of her work was published in Hours of Life and Other Poems, 1853; and a complete collection was published in 1879, the year following her death.