On the third of October, another doctor friend, J. E. Snodgrass, was summoned to Ryan’s saloon on Lombard Street. A stranger had found Poe semiconscious, stretched on a broad plank across some barrels on the sidewalk. He was rushed to Washington College Hospital and placed in charge of the resident physician, Dr. J. J. Moran. A coma was succeeded by delirium and tremors. On the morning of the second day he became calmer but lapsed into rantings which continued through the following Saturday night. On Sunday morning, October 7, 1849, he had another short rest from his agonies, but at 5 a.m., as the doctor looked on, he moved his head gently, spoke his last words, “Lord help my poor soul,” and died. He died alone; Elmira Royster had no idea where he was and neither did Mrs. Clemm.
He was buried on October 9 in the Presbyterian Cemetery at Fayette and Green streets in the lot that had belonged to his grandfather, David Poe. In 1875 his coffin was removed to the southeast corner of the cemetery where his monument now stands.
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe Page 125
