Edgar Allen Poe: Romanticism’s All-Star Poet Essay

Edgar Allen Poe was bone in Boston on January 19 1809 to David and Elizabeth Poe. He lost his parents at the age of two years and had to be adopted by John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan. John Allan was a very wealthy man but he only gave Edgar a third of his school requirements and this alienated him from Edgar. When Allan’s wife dies Edgar also decides to move out because he could not put up with John Allan. Edgar loved poetry from a tender age. He even wrote verses to girls that he developed feelings for. He could have had his first poetry book published by the age of 14 years but there was no support both from his teachers and his adoptive parents. In the course of his life Edgar became an alcoholic and mentally disturbed and this enhanced his writing skills. He created his characters trough imagination to show mystery and adventure.

With fascinating rhyme scheme and an enthralling setting, Edgar Allen Poe draws readers into his dreadfully frightening poems. His poems are best known for being extremely grim and macabre, but with a hint of Romanticism in them. “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” depict Romanticism being described by feelings and imagination. These poems reflect the reality that the author is dealing with different views in the way lovers grieving and the way of dealing with death. He is also able to make two poems that seem very similar completely different. These are all factors in both poems that make these two poems with a similar theme accomplish parallel purposes in emphasizing the theme of the unreliable narrator in Poe’s works.

The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.

Edgar Allen Poe was one of the great writers of this world. He created several poems and short stories of a dark and dreary setting. His imagination was incredible. Edgar Allen Poe did not have a normal life. Bad luck and heart ach seemed to follow him until his death. His writing style was very different than other writers' style. His most famous

The life of Edgar Allan Poe is not a tale of ease. Poe’s life was full of personal and fiscal disaster. These disasters help to mold some of the most ominous and intellectually challenging poetry ever written. For the short duration of Poe’s life, he was seen as a literary critic rather than an author. To the modern generation his unbeknown status seems bafflingly inconceivable, considering his now acclaimed publications. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing was very much dictated by his life. The mournful tone of Edgar Allan Poe’s life created his literature; death and all his friends narrated Poe’s life. Edgar Allan Poe shows his life’s constant despair through his poetry and short story writings.

Poe’s troubled childhood contributed to many difficult relationships with others. He did not get along with his foster father John Allan, as their strong personalities conflicted often, leading to general distrust between the two. Allan described Poe as lazy, ungrateful, “miserable, sulky, & ill-tempered” (Allan, John. Received by Henry Poe, 1 Nov. 1824.). Allan could not provide enough money to support Edgar at university, so Poe resorted to gambling, and ended up in debt. This enraged his foster father, and he refused to help Poe financially. Later on, Poe’s foster mother, Frances Allan, died, separating a connection between the two men. Poe’s gambling and drinking that led to his deliberate expulsion from West Point also angered his father. Later, Poe became engaged in more family issues and eventually his foster father disowned him. However, the breaking point of their relationship occured when Poe wrote to Sergeant Samuel Graves, stating that “Mr. A[llan] is not very often sober” (Poe, Edgar Allan. Received by Sergeant Samuel Graves, Richmond, 3 May 1830, Richmond.). Allan learned of this and sent an undocumented letter to Poe, who replied accusing his father of abuse:  “I wrote to you for some more money, and for books — You replied in terms of the utmost abuse — if I had been the vilest wretch on earth you could not have been more abusive than you were” (Poe, Edgar Allan. Received by John Allan, West Point Military Academy, 3 Jan. 1831, West Point Military Academy).

     Edgar started using drugs, in which he thought would make him feel better. He took opium, laundiam, and morphine. While using drugs he also drank continuosly. Edgar had alot of trouble trying to stop drinking, but nothing helped and he continued to drink. Edgar's nervous system was at a low point, in which he had day-mares of the army trying to capture him, so he disguised himself, clearly this was from a mental illness. Edgar had a lot more mental discomforts following him, some lead him to near suicidal. Poe was brought to the Washington Hospital of Baltimore, on October 6, 1849 after he was found lying in the road with his clothing ripped and still semi-conscious. He then said aloud, his final poem."Father I firmly do believe I know, for death who comes for me from the regions of blast afar where there is nothing to deceive hath left his iron gates ajarand rays of truth you cannot see are flashing through eternity." The next morning Edgar Allan Poe passed away from Lobar Pneumonia which was complicated by depression. Edgar's story "The Raven" was coincidently they way Edgar felt during his depression. "Into

Many believed that Edgar Allen Poe was insane, while others thought he was just a troubled man. After reading through his letters to his “Pa”, it was evident to me that he was depressed, desperate, and hopeless yet hopeful. I did not sense that he was insane or mentally ill while reading his works. Instead I could tell that his life was not very easy and that he was faced with many challenges and hardship.

Edgar Allen Poe who recently passed away, who certainly earned a reputation for being an extravagant poet, opium addict and alcoholic. He was recently reprimanded for his terrible defiance while attending West Point University. It has been said he had many encounters with nudity and also attended many drills in the nude. While he was very disobedient he is said to have been very meticulous with his plans to disrupt. In January, he was said to have been notified by an officer that if he did not stop absenting himself from his duties he would be removed from the rest of the remaining semesters. He seemed uneducated and was observed many times associating with others of these habits and it is said that he was able to cure many of his expenses after meeting with these individuals causing others to discover he may have been distributing opium and alcohol. A while after being expelled from West Point he found it necessary

    Edgar Allan Poe once said, “With me, poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion.” When stressed, writing was his coping mechanism, and through observation, many grasp how much death encompassed Poe. Although not appreciated during his era, he revolutionized mystery with mesmerizing story plots that yield suspense, but also makes readers question his stability. Most importantly, unlike those famous during his lifetime who are now forgotten, Poe’s legacy will live on forever. Moreover, throughout life, Poe experienced catastrophe, and because of this, writing became his creative outlet.

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, and led a very traumatic life. Both of his parents died of consumption when he was two years old, and then “Mr. John Allan, a very wealthy gentleman of Richmond, Virginia, took a fancy to me, and persuaded my grandfather, General Poe, to suffer him to adopt me” (Symons 3). Though he never legally adopted him, John Allan gave him the name “Edgar Allan Poe.” Poe and his adoptive father never had a healthy

Edgar Allan Poe had married his fourteen year-old cousin, whom died ten years later at the age of twenty four, from Tuberculosis (Ljungquist N.P.). After Virginia died, Poe became lost, alcoholic, drug addicted, and debauchery (Szumski 20). “Under the adroit cover of the special mechanism he had constructed, Poe could unveil his inner, introverted self

Edgar Allen Poe’s life was a series of small victories followed by disappointments and failures. According to Wikipedia, Poe was born on January 19, 1809, orphaned by the age of two, and raised by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan. He was educated abroad until the age of 11 when his adopted family returned to Richmond, Virginia. By the age of 19 Poe had disowned his adopted family and joined the U.S. Army. He did well in the military and even received and appointment to West Point. However, after a short time there he deliberately got himself kicked out. He goes onto publish a number of works that were well received and continued to publish until his sudden and unexplained death in 1849. Throughout his life Poe entered into situations with the best intentions to succeed,

Edgar Allan Poe was a prominent writer during the era of Romanticism, but Poe’s poems focused primarily on the Dark Romanticism, developed under Romanticism. The era of Romanticism was commonly described as showing raw emotion, but there was still a conflict in the story. The purpose of Romanticism was for the writer to feel free; there were no rules when it came to this form of writing. Dark Romanticism was looking at the gothic side of stories rather than the heroism stories, which focused more on death, and the flaws of humans. Dark Romanticism also focused on the evil aspect of writings rather than the heroic part to stories. Edgar Allan Poe’s poems are shown more in this type of writing rather than the typical Romantic writings. When looking more into Dark Romanticism readers are able to see how Poe could have connected his personal turmoil to his poems. The University of Delaware’s library says, “Suffering for offenses against God, man and Nature, the hero-villains wander the earth, alone and misunderstood. Their personal torment in a vast universe is emphasized by desolate settings of icebound seas, jagged mountains and bottomless abysses: imagery that would inspire artistic, literary, and musical compositions,” (Dark Romanticism). This quote shows readers that writers during the Dark Romanticism era used their own sufferings in order to make the stories seem more dramatic and almost human. Looking into the poems “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven”, readers are able to see

Poe’s works have received criticism as well as much praise, over the years. Numerous professionals who researched Poe’s life and his writings, knew that his writings were reflections of his real life situations. However,