Edgar Allan Poe

By the time he was two years old, Edgar Poe had already been abandoned by his natural father, separated from his siblings, and experienced death through the eyes of his mother, who suffered and died a horrific death from tuberculosis. A prosperous tobacco merchant from Richmond, VA, named John Allan, took him in and baptized him as Edgar Allan Poe. Immediately following his adoption, the Allans moved from Virginia to Europe and sent Edgar to an exclusive boarding school in England where he studied for five years. Poor financial decisions on John Allan’s part resulted in the family’s return to Richmond, Virginia.

Poe entered the University of Virginia, but remained only one year because he ran up large gambling debts that John Allan refused to pay. Allan prevented Poe’s return to the university, broke off his engagement with his fiancйe, and provided no other means of financial support to Poe. His lack of financial support and education lead him to join the Army as a non-commissioned officer.

While serving in the military during a time of war, Poe published at his own expense, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. After the war ended, Poe lost interest in the military and wanted to terminate his enlistment commitment. In order to accomplish this, he had to reconcile with John Allan to secure his release with an honorable discharge and acquire an appointment to West Point. His fellow cadets from West Point contributed to publishing a second and third edition to Tamerlane. After only six months as a West Point cadet, he contrived to be dismissed for disobedience of orders.

After this last failed attempt at pursuing a military career, Poe moved to Baltimore, Maryland to reside with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm and his cousin, Virginia, who later became his wife. Several failed attempts at maintaining a job forced Poe to move back to Richmond where he secured a job as an editor and director for several magazines. His literary contributions in these capacities gave him great notoriety over the next 10 years and catapulted him “as one of the leading men of letters in America” (Short Story Criticism, p. 375).

His turbulent beginnings and unfortunate life were reflected in his short stories and poems. Many of Poe’s writing were based on his experiences, such as The Raven, The Black Cat, and The Tale Tell Heart. Poe’s life had tremendously affected his writing in many different ways and is manifested through his use of first-person narration.

One of the most famous works in English literature is The Raven that Poe wrote especially for lamenting the death of his beloved wife. The entire poem expresses Poe’s experiences of sadness, grief, and romance. In his typical first-person narration, the narrator appears to solace himself through liquor by drinking inside of the room…”Respite, respite the nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, oh, quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"(Poe, The Raven). In this stanza, the narrator is conflicted with the grieving process of his loss and the preference for numbing his pain with alcohol (’quaff the nepenthe’). During Poe’s life he had trouble with alcoholism and this stanza is an obvious connection to his disease.

Poe’s trouble with alcoholism was amplified through the course of watching Virginia suffer and die from hemorrhages associated with tuberculosis in the same manner as his mother, and many of his works reflect