Influence That Endures Ever More: Edgar Allan Poe

892 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Poe's gothic writing

Influence That Endures Ever More: Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe once said, “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential people in literary history and his words had the great power to impress the mind. More than 150 years after the death of Edgar Allan Poe, his writings are still influencing and inspiring writers today. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the a greatest literary influences of the 19th century and of today because of the way he changed the literary style of his time, he created a new genre of literature of both the horror and detective story, and he became the founder of the modern short story.
Edgar Allan Poe was able to change the way literature was read and written. He was one of the first critics to focus mainly on the effect of style and structure in a piece of literary work. To this day, it seems that nearly every important writer after Poe shows significant signs of influence, especially when works are written in a gothic style or with bizarre jest. Some writers such as Charles Baudelaire, Jules Verne and H. P. Lovecraft can be known as diverse writers who were influenced by Poe’s works.(“Edgar Allan Poe – Biography”) He introduced readers to the vagueness of both the characters and places so that they would focus more on theme and plot rather than what had been the previous focus. Poe changed the way prose was read and written and he even created a new genre of literature.
Edgar can be known today as the first mystery/suspense writer. Many famous mystery writers even credit Poe and his work. Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, a mystery writer made famous by his Sherlock Holmes series, has a character refer to Edgar’s mystery writin...

... middle of paper ...

...us prose writer have been, and still are, influencing and inspiring the writers of today. Poe was able to change the style and structure of literature in the way it was written and read. He permitted the readers to focus more on plot and theme of a story and allowed them to experience the terrors of reality. Edgar became the father of a new genre of literature of both the horror and detective story. Stories in which mystery and macabre combined together and fluttered off the pages only to rest and awaken the obscure catacombs of the mind. He became the founder of the modern short story and inspired other writers to follow in his footsteps of writing short prose that left lasting tales to be forever remembered. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most influential people of his time and of today. The workings of Edgar Allan Poe continue to influence and endure ever more.

Show More
Related

  • How Did Edgar Allan Poe Influence His Life

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers to date. His thrill filled tales of darkness and death helped people see a different side of romantic literature. Many believe that his isolated life and drinking problem helped influence his works. Poe showed his most prominent life accomplishment and disappointments through his life in his stories. He defined a lot of his life’s parallels through his works.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe Obituary

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    Poe became a huge role model in American romance literature. "Edgar Allan Poe helped to establish the image of the Romantic artist as a being who not only created art from the essence of his own personal suffering but also came to define him through this suffering." (Magistrale 1). Poe's life and all his heartbreaks and suffrage through it all are what made him such a good writer. He wrote about sad, depressing, dreary feelings because that is how his childhood and later life was.

    Read More

  • Words to Describe Edgar Allen Poe

    1678 Words  | 4 Pages

    Even though a good number of critics despise Edgar Allen Poe with a passion, almost all who read his creations gave him credit for being a genius. He was the first to write a detective story and tales that dealt with split personality or divided consciousness way before the matter was well known by the common people. He managed to capture the imagination of the public by exploring the mysterious psychological world of the individual -- madness, despair, pain, inner chaos, etc. His works, which lack a sense of right or wrong, had great influence upon some types of popular fiction, with a detective story on the lead. Ranging from French symbolists, like Rimbrad and Mallarme, to American writers, such as Bierce, Melville, and Faulkner, were influenced by Poe's writings. He even inspired well-known Philosophers like Frederick Nietzsche and George Bernard Shaw. Just to mention a few, gothic architecture, psychological abnormalities, hidden...

    Read More

  • Edgar Allen Poe Rough Draft Essay

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe had a significant influence todays writers, he was a writer ahead of his times. Poe was one of the most celebrated American short story writers. He was also known as a famous poet, a critic, and an editor.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Fall Of The House Of Usher And The Raven

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the history of literature there have been various authors who have taken their genre style and enhanced it. An author who was well known for this in the 1800s was the American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is celebrated for his works like The Fall of the House of Usher and The Raven. In writing these poems and tales, he took the horror and romanticism genre and began to add more supernatural themes as well as emotional themes. This not only created a more interesting story, it also began to evolve into what is now known as the dark or gothic romanticism genre. Although the romanticism genre started in Europe, the American side of the genre was more focused on the hidden part of the individual exaggerate themes like the grave and death. Also, the more macabre aspects of American works would sometimes take a backseat to the beauty of the world around them. Poe did not

    Read More

  • Literary Legends: Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    The impact that these two individuals have had on our society has shaped our world to be a better and more fascinating place. They presented to us new concepts of writing along with, intricate ways to communicate their ideas with their audience. Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic style of writing established a whole new view of how literature was viewed and received the attention from readers across the world. Mark Twain had a very light-hearted approach when he wrote his humoristic masterpieces. These authors left an enormous impression in the literary world that is still prevalent in literature today.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe's Life and Work

    1406 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...story writers all over the world. Although he had an unusual, unique, and peculiar way of writing he still had a great influence and impact on society during his time, up to the present day. Poe’s writing has changed the way present day writers write about love, pride, beauty and death.

    Read More

  • The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    Known for his mystery, macabre and detective fiction genre, Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most remembered poets of all time. Usually when people think of him, mind images of premature burials, murders, madmen, and mysterious women who are taken back from pure death like some zombie-like creatures comes to mind. In 1809, Edgar was born the second son out of three, two of which became actors. After the death of his mother and father at the age of three, John and Francis Allan raised him in Virginia. Edgar was sent to the best boarding schools and later on attended the University of Virginia where he was successfully academic. He was forced to leave due to refusement to pay his gambling debts. In 1827, he moved back to Boston and enlisted in the United States Army where his first poems titled Tamerlane, and Other Poems were published.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe Accomplishments

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Details come from his own personal knowledge of them, and his only way to release and use his own imagination was to write his thoughts and feelings down for others to read. Edgar Allan Poe may not have had any recognition during his lifetime, but in the years and decades following his death, his writing has become a huge influence to people and writers. Poe had a very fascinating imagination and he wrote certain style way, which many writers could not write. While he often wrote about dark topics, Poe's best-known fiction works are Gothic. He inspired a new generation of writers but not until years after his death did his level of inspiration become known.

    Read More

  • The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    As short fiction has become a more accepted genre in literary circles, Edgar Allan Poe’s stories become more popular. He’s story passed on and on, and he now consider to be the father of the short story by many. His stories were strong and powerful, one called them mystery. Not only his story, but also his life.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe's Impact on American Literature

    1370 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most influential writers of the horror genre in American history. His horror stories have impacted numerous authors and their stories over the years. Various people have tried to copy his way of writing style, but they have failed to achieve the success he did. Even though Poe is no longer living, his impact on American literature can still be felt today.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe´s Literature

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dark Romanticism Essay

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    His stories had an immense importance among authors such as Stephen King, along with helping to establish the genres of science fiction and the detective story, which got him the named father of the detective story. When writing his work “Poe was concerned above all with the “effect” of his tale on the reader. This effect, he thought, should be single and unified. When readers finished the story, they ought to be left with a totality of impression, and every element of the story--character, style, tone, plot and so forth--should contribute to this effect” (Wright). So Poe sought to give his readers emotional and aesthetic pleasure, but also to get them to believe that his stories had a reality of their own. Poe’s early career path had him harboring two aspirations, one was writing and the other the army. The army aspiration didn’t last long and Poe began to focuses solely on writing full time. Poe began working for a magazine, writing reviews of his contemporaries and developed a reputation as a cutthroat critic, but while working for the magazine he also published some of his own works in it. In later years Poe worked as an editor, a poet, a critic and would publish several poems, short stories, and collections of stories. Poe was one of the more famous Dark Romantic writers, leading his works to have Dark Romantic elements such

    Read More

  • Five Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe opened up many new ways in literature for the following generations, without him we probably would not have detective stories and Gothic tales in the same form as we have today.

    Read More

More about Influence That Endures Ever More: Edgar Allan Poe

Open Document