The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.

  

         From his most popular writing The Raven, to his dark poem Spirits of The Dead, Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his awe-inspiring work. He is by no means a small time writer, but in fact a big time wordsmith. Many biographies and pages have been wrote about Poe, and this one is just a slight introduction to his vast writings, and life.

          On a typical day of January 19, 1809, a future poetic genius was born in a bustling town of Boston, Massachusetts. Poe was believed to have a morose personality, which tended to show throughout his work. He's believed  to have led a not so happy life. Being conceived by an  Actor and an Actress, Poe and his two siblings would develop the love for The Arts. His brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, was infatuated with poetry as well, but led a very short life.

           Edgar Allan Poe’s mother had died while he was very young, resulting in the adoption by John and Frances Allan. His sad start at life could be the reason he has carried the darkness he has throughout his life. He leaves his family later on, but eventually returns because his adoptive mother had passed away from tuberculosis. His return results in the reconcile of his relationship with his adoptive father. However, that relationship doesn’t last long due to the denial  of his request for money from his father.                                                  

            Attending college at the University of Virginia, Poe would eventually realize it was a financial mistake. Picking up bad habits, such as gambling would lead to a debt he found humiliating. He was never really rich to begin with, and at one point was forced to burn his very own furniture just to keep warm. Poe hated the thought of being poor. The hard times pushed him to want a little bit of adventure in his life.

         Loving literature is what made Edgar Allan Poe the person he was. He was nearly  a kid when he published his first work. At a startling age of 18,  Poe writes and prints his first book, Tamerlane and other Poems.

        Stopping for a moment, and trying to depict what Poe’s exact meaning to any of his writings was, is nearly impossible. To be able to actually get inside that man’s head would be entirely fascinating. Looking into my personal favorite, Spirits of The Dead, Poe writes, “Thy soul shall find itself alone ‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tombstone:” I like to believe that he means in the end, we all will end up alone in a hole in the ground. His work is so simple, yet so harrowing. Poe is famous for his dark work. In almost every poem, and every short story, there is at least a glimpse of sadness, or even madness. In his poem Dream-Land, he writes “By a route obscure and lonely, haunted by ill angels only..” This is another example of the darkness he has, because of the key words “lonely”, and “ill”.

          Edgar Allan Poe had a grim start to life, which greatly impacted him. His writings had to have been a part of him. His true love for literature was immense and unforgettable. Poe is a poet who will live on in the history books, and his writings will forever influence the lives of students, and any lover of the genre of macabre.