Allan Poe Biography

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Edgar Poe was born on January 19, 1809 to parents David Poe Jr. and Eliza Poe in Boston Massachusetts. He was the second of three children, his brother William was a poet but died at an early age and his sister Rosalie taught penmanship at a Richmond girl’s school. Before the age of three both of Edgars parents died and the siblings were all sent of to live with different adopted families. John Allan and Frances Valentine Allan adopted Poe. They lived in Richmond Virginia where John was a prosperous tobacco merchant. When Poe turned six the Allan’s moved to England where they stayed for five years. While in England Poe went to good schools and took Latin, French, math, and history classes. As Edgar got older he became interested in writing and poetry. He tried to pursue it as a career but John his adopted father wouldn’t allow it, he wanted Edgar to continue to run the tobacco business. By the age of 13 Poe had written enough poetry to publish a book but was again advised by Allan not to go down that path. Poe got fed up with his life in Richmond, living under Allan’s rules so he left to attend the University of Virginia. While at the University he did very well in all his classes but due to the fact that John didn’t provide him with enough money for his schooling he quickly went into debt. He attempted to gamble to try to pay off his college debts. Since that wasn’t panning out he retuned to Richmond and at 18 published his first book Tamerlane. All of Poe’s life he wanted to do tow things, write and go on adventures, so after publishing his first book he set out on the adventure portion. He enlisted into the United States Army. But after only two years of this he rushed home to Richmond after hearing that Frances Allan his ad... ... middle of paper ... ...ad who stood… In life before thee are again
In death around thee -- and their will
Shall then overshadow thee: be still.” The poem goes on to talk about the mystery of the after life and wondering what the spirits do in heaven or on earth. We see the idea of uncertainty clearly in “A Dream Within a Dream”, where Poe is questioning what reality is and uncertain whether “All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.” Hope and despair are seen in poems like “The Raven” and “Eldorado”. “The Raven” is full of despair over the narrators lost love Lenore and on the other hand there’s “Eldorado” that strangely enough has a hopeful ending. These all add to the overall style of Poe’s writing, which is generally thought of as Gothic or horror in some cases. He wrote to appeal to the masses and at the time mystery novels and sad love stories were craved by readers.

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