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Edgar Allan Poe : His Life Influenced His Work

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Edgar Allan Poe: How His Life Influenced His Work Edgar Allan Poe was an American author known for his works of depression and misfortune. Throughout his lifetime, Poe would never gain fame. It was only after his death that the true genius of Edgar Allan Poe was discovered. Poe frequently used his life occurrences—as terrible as they were—to influence his writings. It is through his writings that one can delve into the mind of Edgar Allan Poe and discover how his life truly was. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. His parents were Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British-born actress, and David Poe, an actor. Poe did not have a very pleasant childhood. His father abandoned the family when Poe was very young,…show more content…
Poe channeled his constant loss and used it to fuel his creative mind and write some of the most genius pieces of American literature. Some examples would be The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, and The Oval Portrait.
In The Raven, an unnamed narrator is up at night thinking of his recently departed lover, Lenore, when a raven visits him. The Narrator stated that “Other friends have flown before . . . On the morrow he will leave me . . .” meaning that the raven will leave him, just as his friends have. The raven then says only one word, “Nevermore” (“Raven” n.p.). The raven represents the grief that the narrator feels for his lost love. The word “nevermore” represents that the narrator will never be able to escape that grief. This is no doubt what Poe experienced with all the death he experienced in his life. In The Masque of the Red Death, a “red plague” was ravaging through a country; meanwhile, the prince of said country, Prospero, had locked himself in his castle and was celebrating with his subjects. The castle had several extravagant rooms, but there was one that people refused to go in. It was a red and black room with a large clock. Poe stated that “at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to hearken to the sound; and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was
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