Introduced by tragedies early in his life, Edgar Allan Poe became one of the most successful writers, poets, and storytellers to ever live. Edgar Allan Poe had the intelligence to do anything he wanted to do, however, the pain of losing his loved ones always seemed to drive him towards a pen and paper. His emotions never failed to show through his writings, which helped the story line touch the readers. Poe became very close to several different women but each would die shortly after he came to love them. This only pushed him to write more emotionally. Poe had a natural talent for putting his real life experiences into a fictional story and making it seem as if it were really happening. A mutual understanding towards many of Poe’s works is that the loss of a lover brings about insanity, but the truth is that in Poe’s works the loss of a young lover leads to depression. This is a theme that is played out in more than one of Poe’s works, but it is most prevalent in the depressing poem Annabel Lee. The speaker is conflicted with losing what is his whole world and his childhood lover. While all is well with both him and the girl alive, an insurmountable depression takes hold once the winds blow out to carry her to the grave. This is a theme that plays out often in his works and has been observed as one of his main inspirations. Within Peter Coviello’s research, he comes to the conclusion that “Within [Poe’s] world, only very young girls, who are not yet encumbered by the revulsions of adult femininity, seem capable of providing a site for stable heterosexual male desire in Poe.” Rather than using a full fledged adult as his lover, he engineered a child into his poem so the lover does not harness the potential to mutate into a monstros... ... middle of paper ... ...r in his life into his characters, even after his death. Works Cited Coviello, Peter. "Poe in Love: Pedophilia, Morbidity, and the Logic of Slavery." ELH 70.3 (2003): 875-901. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2013. Poe, Edgar Allan. Annabel Lee. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 691. Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. The Fall of the House of Usher. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 702-714. Print. Poe, Edgar Allan. Ligeia. 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 692-701. Print. Zimmerman, Brett. "Phrenological Allegory in Poe's "the Fall of the House of Usher"." Mosaic : a Journal for the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature 43.1 (2010): 57-72. ProQuest. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Zlotnick-Woldenberg, Carrie. "Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia": An Object-Relational Interpretation." American Journal of Psychotherapy 53.3 (1999): 403-12. ProQuest. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: The Modern Library 1992
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher". R.V.Cassill, ed. The Norton Fiction. New York, London, 1995.
Century Interpretations of Poe’s Tales. Ed. William L. Howarth. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1971.
In "The House of Poe", Richard Wilbur elucidates his criticisms of Poe 's work. He firstly comments on a critic 's purpose, then how Poe 's stories are all allegories. He then addresses the possible opposition to his argument, and then begins his discussion of the common themes in Poe 's writing and provides examples from his stories. This dissertation will analyze Wilbur 's criticism by cross referencing Poe 's work and how it exemplifies Wilbur 's assessment. There is a great deal of evidence to support Wilbur 's theories, but a close examination of each one will determine how legitimate his argument really is.
Poe, E. A. “The Raven.” Bedford introduction to literature: Reading, thinking, writing. 10th ed. Boston: Bedford Bks St Martin’s. 2013. 789-791. Print.
New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son., 1884. xv-xxvi. EPUB file. Sova, Dawn B. "Poe, Edgar Allan.
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The American Tradition in Literature. Ed. Barbara and George Perkins. Boston: McGraw-Hill College, 1999
Meyers, J. (1992). Edgar Allan Poe: his life and legacy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons Frank, F. S. (1997). The Poe encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press..
Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1992.
Edgar Allan Poe had a peculiar way with his work. He was adopted early in his life to be spared from poverty and heartache (Roberts and Zweig 226). But in the Big Read it is stated that he still felt a satisfaction from women’s suffering. Poe just wanted to be a writer and followed his passion into judging others work to support himself (Roberts and Zweig 226). Some say that he is selfish and indulgent. Sadly the death of Poe is still a mystery but his works affect people’s lives on a daily basis. The elegance of Poe’s prose invokes an emotional reaction he was subject to during his childhood that later led to the creation of the most influential works of the 19th Century.
Ljungquist, Kent. Poe, Edgar Allan. Ed. Paul A. Kobasa. P.15. Chicago: Scott Fetzer company, 2012.
Edgar Allan Poe's life can be summed up in just a few words: death, love, loss, sorrow, and mystery. What better way to express this than through a poem? Poe did exactly this in "Annabel Lee," made famous by its smooth flow and rhyme. The poem details a relationship between two young lovers. Annabel Lee, is killed by the envious high angels of heaven in order to destroy the love between herself and the narrator. However, this setback was evidently minor because their love still existed, and even thoug...
Iorillo, Joseph. Edgar Allan Poe in the Shadow of the Raven. N.p: Dark Realms Magazine, 2002.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1941. Internet.
Poe’s life was indeed marked by misery and tragedy. He was abandon by his father, lived in poverty as a writer, and suffered the loss of many loved ones. On the other hand, maybe it was his dreary life that caused him to escape into the imaginative fantasy world that became his writer’s playground. Looking at it from that perspective, perhaps his unfortunate personal life was the springboard for his success as a writer. Poe did, no matter, have great talent and will forever be remembered for his brilliance in American literature.