Sarah Elmira Shelton (née Royster; 1810 – February 11, 1888) was an adolescent sweetheart of Edgar Allan Poe who became engaged to him shortly before his death in 1849.

Their early relationship, begun when she was 15, ended due to the interference of her father while Poe was studying at the University of Virginia.

After she was widowed in 1844, Royster and her two surviving children inherited $100,000 ($3.37 million in 2024) with the stipulation that she would lose a portion of this estate if she remarried.

[2] Royster wrote later that his disapproval was only because of their young age but he likely also considered Poe unsuitable due to social and financial status as a poor orphan.

[3] Thinking Poe had forgotten her, in 1828 Royster married Alexander B. Shelton, a businessman from a well-to-do Virginia family.

[6] A friend described her as being very attractive around this time: Her eyes were a deep blue, her hair brown, touched with grey, her nose thin and patrician...

Her voice was very low, soft and sweet, her manners exquisitely refined, and intellectually she was a woman of education and force of character.

[8] The wedding never took place; after Poe said goodbye to her, he left Richmond on September 27, 1849, and died mysteriously only two weeks later in Baltimore.

[16] Writer John Evangelist Walsh suggests that Royster's brothers were responsible for Poe's mysterious death.

[17] After Poe's death, Royster refused to speak about him or her relationship, bluntly denying all requests and living a relatively reclusive lifestyle.

In 1875, she finally granted an interview to local sculptor Edward Valentine, as a response to a Poe biography written by John H. Ingram.

She also believed that the "lost Lenore" in the poem "The Raven" as well as the title character in "Annabel Lee" were representative of her and claimed that Poe himself had assured her of it.

[23] Lambert A. Wilmer, a Baltimore writer who was friend of both Poe brothers, also wrote about the young relationship.