...The Mysterious Mr. Poe ” All that we see or seem, Is but a dream within a dream” (http://quotations.about.com/cs/morepeople/a/bls_edgar_allen.htm), this quote is one of many Poe’s famous sayings. He was known as the inventor of the modern detective story and innovator of the science fiction genre. Although, many people know him because of his tales of horror as well as his haunting lyric poetry there is a whole other side to him other than a morbid, mysterious creature lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries. His childhood was very tragic and his adult life full of sorrow. This death though, was something to for everyone to think about. Poe, I believe is one of the most unique characters in the literary world. Edgar Poe (his original name), was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston. Within three years of his birth, both of Poe’s parents had died. His two siblings, Henry and Rosalie, moved away to live with other families. Poe, however, went to live with a wealthy tobacco merchant, Mr. John Allan, (hence, acquiring the middle name Allan). Poe had always dreamed since his childhood to be a writer, but, Mr. Allan wanted him to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman. Because of Poe’s immense interest in poetry, by the time he was thirteen, he had acquired enough poetry to make a book. In 1826, Poe left for the University of Virginia. While excelling in his classes he had also accumulated a considerable amount of debt. Because of Poe’s debt, he had taken up to gambling to...
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...Briana Eng 201 Final Paper 20 April 2015 Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher: Literary Elements Exemplify Gothic Style As the Romantic Movement swept through nineteenth century American literature, Edgar Allan Poe emerged as one of the central literary figures of the Romantic era. Along with other authors like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Poe’s Romantic style of writings often introduced his readers to the dark side of literature present during the time. As Poe sets out to explore and expose different elements of darkness within humanity, he familiarizes his readers with the experience of fear and horror that are so commonly present throughout his works. As a result of the recurrent themes of fear, horror and mystery that he elicits through his writings, Poe is often credited as one of the most important writers of Gothic fiction, an extension of the romantic style of writing. While most of his works of fiction are told from the perspective of a first person narrator, in Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher he implores the use of the peripheral narrator to introduce his readers to the many elements in the story that exemplify his distinctly gothic style. By allowing readers into the mind of the narrator, Poe gives his audience the opportunity to discover, analyze and interpret different key literary devices used to highlight important characteristics that classify the gothic style of writing. Utilizing the peripheral narrators experience with mystery and suspense allows...
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...Edgar Allan Poe 1 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” Jesse T. Smith Axia College of University of Phoenix Professor Lorelie Kaid October 19, 2008 E.A.P. 2 Edgar Allan Poe “The Life and Tragedies of Edgar Allan Poe” The famous writer, poet has long been criticized for his unconditional writings that made the man who he was so very famous for. Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, Died mysteriously, October 07, 1849 in Baltimore, Maryland. The famous writer would go on to inspire such authors as Ray Bradbury and Stephen King, to name a few. There has been a mystery since the death of Edgar Allan Poe, of what caused his death. There have been many writing’s trying to settle this debate. Some are as follows. • Beating (1857) The United States Magazine Vol. II (1857): 268. • Epilepsy (1875) Scribner’s Monthly Vol. 10 (1875):...
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...Romantic poet Edgar Allan Poe is widely known for his terrifying and mysterious novels and poems. Born on January 19, 1809, Poe soon became a brilliant writer. His tales produced the modern detective story and many of his works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart”, became literary classics. "The Raven," which Poe released in 1845, is considered among the most popular poems in American literature. Edgar Allan Poe left a large imprint on the period of romanticism and inspired musicians as well as writers across the country. Poe's unique short stories and poems sparked imagination and interest in readers around the world. His storytelling led to advances in literature; this caused others to start calling him “Father of the Detective Story”. Mystery did not show in just his poems, but also in his personal...
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...2013 Edgar Allan Poe’s life from beginning to end was shrouded in turmoil and touched with mystery. He was a curious man in life that left much mystery in the wake of his passing. Several theories exist but there is no absolute answer to Poe’s untimely death. He was born January 19, 1908 in Boston, Massachusetts, orphaned at the age of three when his mother passed away and then “went to live with John and Frances Allan, a successful tobacco merchant and his wife, in Richmond, Virginia.” (“Edgar,” 2013, p. 2) He attended the University of Virginia until financial issues forced him to move home. He also attended West Point but was kicked out after only a year for poor management of his obligations. In 1836 Poe married his young cousin, Virginia, when she was age 13. He worked for a few magazines earning himself a reputation as a ferocious critic by writing venomous reviews of his peers. In his writing career he became known as the “Father of the Detective story” forever changing the face of the genre. One of his works, “The Raven,” is one of the best known poems in American Literature. His adored Virginia passed away in 1847 and Poe became overwhelmed with grief. He continued to work but suffered from poor health and struggled fiscally. There has been much debate on how Poe’s final days were spent. Some say he drank himself to death while other theories suggest carbon monoxide poisoning, epilepsy and rabies but no one really knows for sure. The story of Poe’s death...
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...The Poe(t) Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 as Edgar Poe. He was the second son of David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, both whom were actors. In 1810, shortly after Poe’s birth his father deserted the family. The subsequent death of his twenty-four year old mother on December 8, 1811 in Richmond, Virginia, left Poe an orphan at the young age of three. After his mother’s death, John, a strict unemotional tobacco merchant, and Frances Allan, a weak woman due to health problems, took in Poe; his paternal grandparents took in his brother William Henry; and foster parents cared for his sister Rosalie. Poe was educated with the Allan’s aid, in private academies, excelling in Latin, in writing verse, and declamation. However, despite his education, he was looked down upon and regarded as an outsider by the upper class of Richmond’s society; perhaps because the Allan’s never legally adopted Poe. Also, the culture of Richmond during Poe’s young adulthood did not regard actors in a high manner. This could have attributed to his reputation since his biological parents were actors. 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’” Poe wrote that in To My Mother. In Tamerlane, he not only wrote about his father, but he wrote about his mother as well; he had more respect for his mother than he did for his father. This respect can be found in...
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...Maddox English IV and History April 22, 2011 Edgar Allan Poe To most people, Edgar Allan Poe was a troubled soul that had many psychological issues. Some people think that his works mimicked his own mental torment and torture; others thought that he was an American writer romantically doomed to failure by events and emotions too great for him to handle. His writings reflect each theory, and his style was very unique and unusual for the time period in which they were written. The artistic liberties and risks that Poe took in his works sparked the beginning of what we call the Romanticism Period. The hardships and tragedies which Edgar Allan Poe faced throughout his life played a big part in influencing his writing, how his writing influenced the period, and how it affected his mental stability (Life 240). Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, to David and Elizabeth Poe. He had two siblings, a younger sister named Rosalie and an older brother named Henry. When Poe was just one, his father abandoned his wife and children. At two his mother died of tuberculosis and the children were split up into different homes (Tragedies 240). Poe was taken in by John Allan and his childless wife Frances, giving him his middle name. Having experienced many tragedies at an early age, he, starting at the age of six, developed a great fear of death and this influenced how and what he would later write (Jordan np). The Allan couple lived in Richmond, Virginia, and Poe was...
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...Conspiracy Theory Research Paper: Was Edgar Allan Poe Murderer? Have you ever wondered how the gruesomely poetic Edgar Allan Poe died? Was he in fact murdered or driven mad by sickness? There are many conspiracies leading up to his demise. Due to the lack of medical research and supplies back in the 1800’s it was hard to get an accurate medical examination of his body after his passing. He was also buried two days after his death, furthermore making it more arduous to examine his newly deceased corpse. Edgar Allan Poe was a famous ominous poet from the early 1800’s. He was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA. Poe was gloriously known for his short stories on mystery and murder. He was an orphan by the age of two and his new family never...
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...some point. Whether it is a fight for food, for wealth, or simply for happiness, the conflicts fought can leave people tarnished and withered. In the case of Edgar Allan Poe, whose father abandoned the family and whose mother died of tuberculosis shortly after, final expiration came on a Baltimore hospital bed the evening of the 7th October in 1849. Poe had a myriad life struggles, and in A Dream Within a Dream, which questions reality and was one of his poems written in youth and, first published in the Flag of Our Union (Poe 89), his general distress is clear. Born Edgar Poe on the 19th of January 1809 and orphaned two years later, he was adopted by John & Frances Allan, whereby he received his middle name (Frank 18). “There is no doubt that Poe was a difficult child” (Krutch 25), but with such a tragic beginning to life, how could he be expected to act as if nothing was on his mind? During his adolescence, he wrote many poems that went unpublished. Poe notes in his prefix to Poems Written in Youth, “Private reasons – some of which have reference to the sin of plagiarism… have induced me… to re-publish these, the crude compositions of my earliest boyhood” (Poe 88). Though categorized as one of his ‘boyhood’ poems, A Dream within a Dream, did not make it into this collection, and it “was first published [after Poe’s death] in the March 31, 1849 edition of a Boston-based periodical called Flag of Our Union“ (Sova 73). The poem begins with three rhyming lines, where Poe bids...
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...In life, as in death, Edgar Allan Poe evoked a feeling of sympathy from his readership. Those who knew him well considered him deep, mysterious and contemplative; thus, coupled with the copious tragedies he suffered throughout his life, especially the loss of his first wife Virginia, it is easy to understand how the author brings out the theme of Annabel Lee through personal/setting imagery, repetition of words and rhythm/rhyme. Annabel Lee honors the memory of Poe's deceased wife, Virginia. Throughout the poem, his use of personal imagery helps the reader to grasp the intense feelings of loss he continues to experience long after her passing. The setting imagery is critical to this particular literary piece, in that it is through setting that one gains a significantly better realization of his anguish. A passage from what came to be the last poem written by Poe before his death illustrates his torment. Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat Edgar Allan Poe's "The Black Cat" is a story of how an arguably demonic, manipulating black cat ruins the life of its master. After being maimed and murdered by its once loving owner, the cat is reincarnated and finds its way back to its murderer to seek revenge. The story, however, does not focus so much on the actions of the cat, but rather the actions of its unfortunate master. The story is narrated from the point of view of a condemned, remorseful man who recalls the violent actions that placed him in his current...
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...The life of Edgar allan changed a lot of things, but him more than anyone. The ultimate downfall of his life and early death was foreshadowed in his young childhood. On January 19, 1809, Edgar Poe was born to a professional actor and actress by the name of David Poe, Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold. He was the second son that these two had, but it didn’t last long because David went on a trip to New York where he decided to desert his family when Poe was one year old. After two years Elizabeth gave birth to another daughter; however, after this birth Elizabeth fell very ill. She died later that year on December 8, 1811 at the age of 24 to Tuberculosis. Young Edgar was between the age of two and three at the time of her death. All of his siblings were...
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...Poe’s Dark Appeal There are few writers as adept at invoking feelings and images of darkness, dread, and depression in a reader as successfully as Edgar Allan Poe. Born in Boston in 1809 to impoverished actors David and Elizabeth Poe (Allen), Edgar’s entire existence seems to have been destined for struggle and loss. He was orphaned by age three, losing his mother to tuberculosis and his father by desertion (Allen). He was taken in by the Allan family, but during Edgar’s year-long stint at West Point in 1830—and subsequent expulsion—his relationship with his foster father suffered irreparable damage (“Biography”). His life soon became a mélange of depression, alcoholism, unemployment, and financial hardship (“Biography”). He died in 1949 while on a trip to Baltimore, under mysterious circumstances: theories of “congestion of the brain,” alcoholism, rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning continue to swarm today (“Biography”). Having lived a life of constant struggle and turmoil, it is not surprising that his works are imbued with brooding and despondency, and that the common themes in his writings revolve around derangement and death. His short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” provides a perfect example of his fixation with madness, murder, and melancholy. It is this very fascination with all things grotesque, combined with his uncanny ability to weave multiple literary elements together to create a bizarre tapestry that appeals to readers, and what makes Edgar Allan Poe...
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...Edgar Allen Poe was known for writing mysterious horror literature works, but his biggest mystery seems to be how he died. We believe the theory of him dying from cholera and mercury poisoning is the most believable for many reasons. To start off, we believe Poe died from cholera and mercury poisoning because Edgar Allan Poe himself claimed, in numerous letters he wrote in 1849, to have cholera, which is a deadly bacterial disease, typically contracted from contaminated water. In his letter Poe stated, “I have been so ill-have had the cholera, and spasms quite as bad, and can now hardly hold the pen…” This excerpt from a letter from Poe to his mother-in-law, just months before he died, says exactly that he had been suffering from cholera. Edgar...
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...Presence of Poe Edgar Allan Poe is regarded as one of the great American writers in history. He had a unique way to present his stories, his imagination stretched into the darkest corners of his mind. One can say his characters were developed from personal experiences in his life. His use of writing techniques was ingenious and unsurpassed. These are just a few reasons why he is a permanent reminder whenever horror stories come to mind. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. His parents were David and Elizabeth Poe. He was one of three children including his brother Henry and his sister Rosalie. His mother separated from his father when he was about two years of age and took her children with her. She died about a year later, when he was two years of age. He was separated from his siblings and was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. John Allan; this is where his name became Edgar Allan Poe. John Allan was a successful merchant, so Poe grew up in good surroundings and attended excellent schools. When he was six, he was sent to school in England and attended for five years. He then returned to the United States to continue his studies. At seventeen, Poe went to the University of Virginia but dropped out less than a year later because he could not support himself. John Allan shunned him. He enlisted in the Army because he had no money and nowhere to go at the age of eighteen. He did reasonably well attaining, the rank of sergeant-major, and got accepted to...
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...Edgar Allan Poe’s stature as a successful figure in world literature is mainly due to his profound and ingenious poems, critical theories and short stories. His stories share a familiar theme of being of a gothic nature. The gothic theme usually entails an emphasis on the desolate, the grotesque, the mysterious, the ghostly, the horrible and the horrible fear that they may arouse in the viewer or the reader. The author of any gothic horror story aims to create a setting that will bring about eerie sensations in the reader, which keep him or her on the edge. This includes having effects such as menacing shadows, smelly, foul or smelly underground passages and of course, characters that match the setting. Edgar Allan Poe achieves his gothic theme in his short stories by using characters...
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