Edgar Allan Poe's Life

A writer. An alcoholic. A lonely gentleman. A husband. A poor man. All of these can be used to describe Edgar Allan Poe in his life, and he is now famous for his amazing stories and poems. Poe lost both his birth parents before he was three and was taken in by the wealthy merchant, John Allan, and his wife Francis. Poe attended the University of Virginia, but he returned home soon after due to a lack of funds. When Poe was eighteen, he left his home to enlist in the army around the same time his first book (Tamerlane and Other Poems) was published. Although many of Poe's works are now famous, Poe struggled to support himself as a writer when he was alive. Poe died at the age of forty on October 7, 1849 of a cause that still remains a mystery

Poe never had strong relationships other people, with his loss of family and his fickle love life. According to the article "Poe's Life" from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, Poe was often “seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles.” (“Poe’s Life” 1), similar to the dark and strange characters in his stories and poems. For these reasons Poe was depressed and lonely, and these feelings also had great influence on Poe's writings. For example, in his poem "Alone," Poe writes, " From childhood's 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," (Poe 622). Poe was definitely an unusual person in his life, and this poem reveals how lonely and different he truly felt. For another example of Poe's depression in his writings, he writes, "The lingering illness is over at last- and the fever called 'Living' is conquered at last," in his poem "For Annie" (Poe 651). The man in the poem is celebrating that his illness of life is finally over, and death is his cure. Poe later reveals in the poem that he will miss his lover and that although the character is dead, he lives on in her. This reveals Poe's true feelings: that life is a struggle that only death can resolve, but love is the best reason there can be to live. (Poe 651-657). Poe struggled with depression all throughout his life, bringing a dark and mysterious element to his stories that shows the harshness of life as Poe felt