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Analysis of allen poe's writing
Main themes in edgar allan poe
Analysis of allen poe's writing
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Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry is a fascinating study of Gothic fiction that deals with darkness towards death and emptiness. On the other side his love for his wife (Virginia Clemm) somehow shined through his poetry. Imagine reading his poems for the first time, one could think Poe was a man possessed by a dark mind. A person with such darkness, yet at the same time expressed his love for his lovely wife Virginia Clemm through his poetry. In addition, Edgar Allan Poe was a person who suffered from depression and melancholy, he expressed his feelings through his writings. According to Douglas Birch, “Poe himself wrote that ‘I fell in love with my melancholy.’” Let’s take a trip inside a poet’s mind and the life of Edgar Allan Poe, through his …show more content…
Police then show up and the killer gives himself away by becoming nervous. One can think that the old man might represent Edgar Allan Poe’s step-father and the anger he might have towards him. Although Edgar Allan Poe might have loved his step-father just like the killer loved the old man, Edgar Allan Poe did not kill his step-father. This is one of Poe’s dark poems. Another poem that shows darkness is Alone, in this poem Poe expresses his loneliness and sadness later compares it to others. Poe is hurt by his childhood and cannot seem to break from it. He does not seem to understand the beautiful things around him, and to him everything appears to be negative. “From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of the demon in my view.” …show more content…
As Edgar Allan Poe became older this disease grew obvious. Sixty-one percent of manic depressives abuse alcohol or drugs, and Edgar Allan Poe was a drug (liquid opium) and alcohol user. Unfortunately, Poe died at age 40 after being found semi-conscious and apparently drunk. No one really knows what caused Edgar Allan Poe death. (Birch) Without Poe suffering from mood swings he would not have created beautiful and touching poems. For example, The Raven, “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.”(Poe 887) This poem shows how Edgar Allan Poe used his melancholy to create the
The poem “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe depicts the personal life and challenges Poe faced as a child. For example, the poem begins with Poe explaining how he knew he was different from other children, this is apparent when Poe writes, “From childhood's hour I have not been/ As others were-- I have not seen” (Poe ll. 1-2). Poe further goes on to explain how he felt abandoned and apart from his peers, stating “And all I lov'd-- I lov'd alone” (Poe 8). I believe this explains how Poe felt alone after his parents died, as if no one else understood what he was going through. Further into the poem, Poe explains how he had to face the “evil” in his life while his peers mainly had “good” lives. This is apparent at the end of the poem, when Poe writes, “(When the rest of Heaven was blue)/ Of a demon in my view--” (Poe 21-22). Although the poem is only 22 lines, Poe uses multiple poetic device throughout the whole poem.
Edgar Allen Poe is known for his dark yet comedic approach toward the his theme of his stories. Likewise, Poe’s themes have gathered many fans due to his impression of reasoning in his stories. The author uses thinking and reasoning to portray the theme. Poe’s unique diction comprehends with the theme of the story. Poe has a brilliant way of taking gothic tales of mystery, and terror, and mixing them with variations of a romantic tale by shifting emphasis from, surface suspense and plot pattern to his symbolic play in language and various meanings of words.
Conclusion: Edgar Allen Poe suffered from what is now known as manic depression, and his gothic tales and dark poetry are direct examples of how life influences art. His works may not have been as controversial had he not lived a life of poverty, addiction, and tragedy. Some might say his work was way ahead of his time. But he wrote about things going on around him, like murder and grave robberies. He used imagery and setting to make his stories seem more realistic. His tales could easily be made into movies in today’s times.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe, was stuffed with tragedies that all affected his art. From the very start of his writing career, he adored writing poems for the ladies in his life. When he reached adulthood and came to the realization of how harsh life could be, his writing grew to be darker and more disturbing, possibly as a result of his intense experimenting with opium and alcohol. His stories continue to be some of the most frightening stories ever composed, because of this, some have considered this to be the reason behind these themes. Many historians and literature enthusiasts have presumed his volatile love life as the source while others have credited it to his substance abuse. The influence of his one-of-a-kind writing is more than likely a combination of both theories; but the main factor is the death of many of his loved ones and the abuse which he endured. This, not surprisingly, darkened his perspective considerably.
The poem “Alone” by Edgar Allan Poe depicts the personal life and challenges Poe faced as a child. The poem begins with Poe explaining how he knew he was different from other children. A quote that clearly portrays this would be, “From childhood's hour I have not been/ As others were-- I have not seen” (Poe ll. 1-2). Poe goes on to explain how he felt abandoned and severed from his peers, stating “And all I lov'd-- I lov'd alone” (Poe 8). I believe the previous quote explains how Poe felt alone after his parents died. Later on in the poem, Poe explains how he would only see the “evil” in life while his peers saw the “good”. This is proven at the end of the poem, when Poe writes, “(When the rest of Heaven was blue)/ Of a demon in my view--” (Poe 21-22). Although the poem is only twenty-two lines, Poe uses multiple poetic device throughout the poem.
Edgar Allan Poe's deplorable life was filled with unfortunate calamity, endless tragedies, and pathetic misery, which inevitably led to his pessimistic view on life and obsession with death. His personal mind frame is automatically conveyed in his essays, which for him was a primary form of expression. Thus, a strong emphasis on somber despondency has proven to be a thematic element of his literary career.
Within the poem Poe divides the characters and imagery into two conflicting aspects of light and dark. Almost everything in the poem reflects one world or the other. For example, Lenore, who is repeatedly described as ?radiant? epitomizes the world of light along with the angels she has joined. Another image of light would be the lamplight the character uses to light his chamber, his refuge from the darkness of the outside. However, The Raven, as well as the dreary December night shows signs of darkness. These images of light and darkness go even further to represent life and death, the man?s hope of an afterlife with Lenore and his fear of everlasting loneliness.
Edgar Allan Poe’s haunting poems and morbid stories will be read by countless generations of people from many different countries, a fact which would have undoubtedly provided some source of comfort for this troubled, talented yet tormented man. His dark past continued to torture him until his own death. These torturous feelings were shown in many of his works. A tragic past, consisting of a lack of true parents and the death of his wife, made Edgar Allan Poe the famous writer he is today, but it also led to his demise and unpopularity.
Edgar Allan Poe was a celebrated author who wrote many poems and short stories in the 19th century. Poe was known for his romanticism and the mysterious feeling that was sure to be felt through many of his tales. Edgar Allan Poe was himself, quite a mystery. One of the strangest parts of his character that highlights the mystery within him was his obsession with death. This obsession was most likely rooted from the fact that many of his loved ones had untimely deaths. His mother died when he was very young from tuberculosis (Dameron). Following in the footsteps of the depressing death of his mother, many years later Poe’s young wife died of the same disease, tuberculosis. Many other members of Poe 's family died from various causes,
Edgar Allan Poe has a unique writing style that uses several different elements of literary structure. He uses intrigue vocabulary, repetition, and imagery to better capture the reader’s attention and place them in the story. Edgar Allan Poe’s style is dark, and his is mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. What might be Poe’s greatest fictitious stories are gothic tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love, or both. His choice of word draws the reader in to engage them to understand the author’s message more clearly. Authors who have a vague short lexicon tend to not engage the reader as much.
In Poe’s own life no durg could ever fully numb him to the pain of all his loses. His only true solace from his despair was in literature and his writings. Poe believed that visual art allowed the spirit to transcend the plane of reality to which it was stuck. In the Raven the narrator closely resembles Poe in this aspect. The narrator spends many a night reading long forgotten literature in an attempt to forget his own troubles after his loss. This is explained beautifully by Poe with the line “Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had tried to borrow, / From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore.” (Poe 9-10) No matter how hard he tries; however he can shake the crushing despair that has a firm grip on his emotions. One dreary night the narrator gained an unsuspecting visitor. This visitor came in the form of a raven that flew into his window. The raven torments the man reminding him of his insecurities, his flaws, and his loss. The raven accomplishes all these things by rhythmically answering his pleas with but one word, to quote the raven “nevermore.” Just like the narrator will nevermore see the face of his dead love, he too will never be free from his despair. For as long as the man lives much like Poe he
For poets, it is essential that they write about what they know and what they feel, as the substance of what they are revealing will enhance their work and ultimately attract audiences. Edgar Allan Poe is one poet whose personal endeavours can be extracted from his poems. His works such as The Raven, Annabel-Lee and Ulalume are just a few of his most celebrated poems that reflect diverse aspects of Poe’s own life. Poe’s reoccurring themes of death in conjunction with love, the subconsciousness of self and ambiguity attracted audiences to become entranced in his work (Spark Notes, 2014). Adjacent to these intriguing themes is how Poe’s personal life was inexplicitly perceived in his poems, in particular The Raven.
The poem "Alone" by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1830, is about how Poe was always different, and he could never really fit in, he was always sad. The meaning of the poem "Alone", is that of Poe being so different, being left out, not fitting in, and the feeling of sorrowness. The poem is attempting to teach the meaning by the way Poe writes of his sorrowness and his sense of being different, his seeking to solve the mystery of why he "lives" and why he was born, and finally why his life is so different, when others are living completely normal and happy lives.
What is point of view? Point of view is “the speaker, voice, narrator, or persona of a work; the position from details are perceived and related; a centralizing mind or intelligence; not to be confused with opinion or belief “(Roberts, 119). Edgar Allen Poe’s writings use point of view to change the reader’s viewpoint of the reading. “An objective narrator is telling a terrible story objectively might be frightening, but even more frightening is a man telling without emotion the story of his own terrible crime”(Gargano, 52). In Edgar Allen Poe’s collections: The Cask of Amontillado, Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Tell Tale heart he uses the point of view to influence the readers understanding of the selections.
Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s life, death was a frequent visitor to those he loved around him. When Poe was only 3 years old, his loving mother died of Tuberculosis. Because Poe’s father left when he was an infant, he was now an orphan and went to live with the Allan’s. His stepmother was very affectionate towards Edgar and was a very prominent figure in his life. However, years later she also died from Tuberculosis, leaving Poe lonely and forlorn. Also, later on, when Poe was 26, he married his cousin 13-year-old Virginia, whom he adored. But, his happiness did not last long, and Virginia also died of Tuberculosis, otherwise known as the Red Death, a few years later. After Virginia’s death, Poe turned to alcohol and became isolated and reckless. Due to Edgar Allan Poe’s loss of those he cared for throughout his life, Poe’s obsession with death is evident in his works of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Black Cat”, and “The Fall of the House of Usher”, in which in all three death is used to produce guilt.