Which of edgar allen poes works were personifacation?

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2001

Answers

Dear Bill,

I believe that you may be somewhat confused, judging from your question. You ask which of Poe's works were personification. I shall try to elucidate the concept behind "personification":

Personification, speaking generally, is a literary device consisting in attributing human characteristics to inanimate objects or to non-human elements (for example, "The wind spoke to the child" the wind cannot speak). There is a similar device called anthropomorphism.

I think that what you probably meant to ask, suggested by the phrasing of your inquiry, is which of Poe's works were "autobiographical", that is to say, which works are directly based on Poe's life.

It is quite reasonable to say that any work by an author is in some way or another autobiographical, since authors write from their own experiences, and their background, education, etc. etc. helps to shape their writing. However, it is always dangerous to attempt to identify the author (in this case Poe) with characters found in their works, because characters are ultimately fictitious, literary creations.

I hope that this goes some way towards answering your question, and if you have any further queries, please feel free to contact me>

Yours sincerely,

Pragmatic Poe

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001