The Poetry and Prose of Edgar Allen Poe

2189 Words5 Pages

Art is in everything. Artists can be experts with a paintbrush, phenomenal with piano or a master of their pen. Authors and poets have a chance to manipulate words like no other artist can. Poets in particular can use their words to encompass different kinds of art by painting a picture with lyrical rhythm and imagery. Poets may be common, but for their poetry to be timeless it must be universally relatable. Edgar Allen Poe is regarded as one of the most famous poets in American history due to his well renowned debauchery, gothic tales of terror, and poems which are taught in schools and still analyzed today.

Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts in the early nineteenth century. It is well known that Poe endured a difficult life, and tragedy began at an early age. At three years old, he witnessed his mother’s death (Bloom). Then, he was taken into custody of the Allen family who remained his benefactors until he attended the University of Virginia. However, Poe did not remain at the university past 1826 because his foster father would not pay off a debt that Poe had, and he also would not pay tuition (bloom). From the University, Poe traveled back to Massachusetts where he joined the army. It was in the army in 1827 that Poe published his first work, called Tamerlane and Other Poems under anonymous (Merriman). Not long after his first publication, tragedy struck again. His foster mother died in 1829, the same year his second book was published. It was only two years later that Poe met his future wife while living with his aunt and his brother. Henry, his brother, died of tuberculosis just like their mother did soon after Poe moved in (Merriman). The next few years, Poe published several works and became an editor at th...

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