Edgar Allen Poe changed American literature with his poetry and unique outlook in criticism. To this day, he is well remembered and his works in poetry and other literature, as well as critics are still used today. His upbringing was sad because he never really knew his parents. Both traveling actors, his father left the family when he was very young and his mother died shortly after. After this tragedy, he was taken in by John and Frances Valentine Allan, a wealthy couple who were very successful tobacco traders and wholesalers residing in Richmond, Virginia. Because of the almost unlimited resources that his adopted parents had access to, he was able to go to the best schools around and distinguished himself as a scholar in writing and poetry, as well as every other subject. He went to the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and quickly rose to the top, but he was forced to drop out after only a year due to little financial support from Allan. He joined the army and achieved the rank of regimental sergeant major, where he published his first poetry collection and was later honorably discharged so he could …show more content…
"The Fall of the House of Usher," "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven." are still popular today and referred to in English classes for analysis and symbolism. He was so powerful that he flipped the direction of modern literature today by inspiring symbolist in 19th century. He was also a well known critic of literature and was the first to view words in that way. Poe focused his criticism on the specifics of style and construction that made up a piece of writing's effectiveness or failure instead judging the moral and ideological things like all the other critics of that time. His way of thinking had a massive effect on the mindset of others. The amount of creativity and strong, insightful ideas shook American