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Edgar Allan Poe's life seemed to be cursed almost from the day he was born. Abandoned by his father and losing his mother to pneumonia both happened before Edgar turned three years old. His wife died only ten years after marriage. Two important people in Poe's life died and one abandoned him. So Poe was a lonely person. Poe's loneliness was shown in his writings of short stories and poems.
Poe's father left him when he was just a baby. The feeling of abandonment shows in one of Poe's first writings. In The Gold-Bug, Edgar Allan Poe writes about a man who abandons his family to start a new life, Mr. William Legrand.
He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy: but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid the mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the city of his forefathers and took up a his residence at Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina (The Gold-Bug). In Tamerlane (he wrote while attending college) Poe repeatedly refers to father which is his way of talking to his own father even though he could not remember who his father was. Unshelterd - and the heavy wind Rendered me mad and deaf and blind (Tamerlane). Poe never was homeless in his childhood but the feeling of not having a home can come from the fact that his father left him and never made an attempt to contact him (www. search).
Poe did not seem to have high respect for his father. Kind solace in a dying hour! Such, father, is not (now) my theme I would not call thee fool, old man. But such is not a gift of thine (Tamerlane). Edgar Allan Poe also had a feeling of resentment against his father.
From childhoods hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone. (Alone). Poe was telling his father in this poem that he might have been a different person had his father not abandoned him. Before the age of three Edgar Allan Poe's mother had died from pneumonia. Now Poe was an orphan and was taken in by John Allan from whom he took his middle name Allan (www.
search). The loss of his mother at an early age definitely affected Poe, The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of Mother (To My Mother). In Tamerlane, he did not just write about his father but he also wrote about the loss of his mother too. He had more respect for his mother than he did for his father. In Tamerlane he speaks much nicer of his mother. O, she was worthy of all love!
Love - as in infancy was mine - Twas such as angel minds above Might envy; her young heart the shrine on which my every hope and thought (Tamerlane). He really wanted his mother to have been with him during his childhood and the rest of his life. Id throw me on her throbbing breast, And pour my spirit out in tears - There was no need to speak the rest - No need to quiet any fears (Tamerlane). He thought of life with his mother. Although that was not possible and he would have to live without her and live with the Allan's in Richmond, Virginia (www. search).
In 1831 Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm. There he fell in love and married her daughter and his cousin Virginia Clemm, who was not even 14 at the time. Ten years later she also died. He dearly loved his wife and after she died his life just went to pieces. In The Raven, the character is morning over the death of Lenore when he is visited by a raven.
Poe used the raven because it is a bird that feeds on dead flesh - a symbol of death. thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he hath sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! (The Raven). Lenore is thought of to be a representation of Poe's deceased wife Virginia. He did not want to get over the loss of his wife.
Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit they bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take they form from off my door! (The Raven). In the poem, To My Mother, Poe writes about his own mother taking care of Virginia in heaven and becoming her mother as well. My mother - my own mother, who died early, Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, And thus are dearer than the mother I knew By that infinity with which my wife Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life (To My Mother). The death and morning of his wife did, in fact, come out in his writings. Poe is very lonely at this point in his life and misses his wife Virginia.
For mid the earnest cares and woes That crowd around my earthly path, (Sad path, alas, where grows Not even a lonely rose! ) (To One Departed). Death is a time in life that scares Poe and he thinks of it as being evil. Prophet! said I, thing of evil - prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore (The Raven). Poe had a fear of death, mostly because two women that he loved dearly had died.
He did not always think of death as being an evil thing. In Tamerlane, Poe knew that death was part of life and he seemed content with the idea of dying. Father, I firmly do believe - I know - for Death, who comes for me. Else how, when in the holy grove (Tamerlane). Edgar Allan Poe did not have a normal happy life like most people have. He died on October 7, 1849 at the age of 40.
Although, many people understand Poe's fascination with death and dying, the events and deaths in Poe's life did, definitely, have an affect on his writings. He was a lonely person and that was what he wrote about. Maybe, if his life had been happier his writings would have not been so depressing and disheartening.
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Research essay sample on The Life And Writings Of Edgar Allan Poe
