I am writing a poem in the same style as Edgar Allen Poe. I need to know what his writing style was. What he used: devices, examples, etc.

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Answers

HE WAS A CRAZY GUY THAT WROTE DARK POEMS AND STORIES

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

he wasn't a crazy old guy you fucking retard.....e.a. poe was one of and still IS one of the best fucking authors you illeterate bastard..i was reading his shit in 1st grade.....so HAAAAAAAH!

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

Read Poe's poems and essays on poetry(www.eapoe.org). Without regressing to another century you can enter into the spirit of his poetry by using restrained symbolism, melodic rhythms, word music and brief forms. His concept of the beautiful line is important. You just have to get a feel for that by reading the the examples he quotes- aloud. Melancholy was his favorite, though not only theme. His relationship to an otherworldly ideal, lost, far away, alternating between hope and despair. Onomatopoeia is one method(The Bells, El Dorado, Annabel Lee, The Raven) where the sound matches the physical world and sets the mood at the same time.

If this is a school assignment(extra credit I hope)you should at least make it personal and modern by finding some deep feeling and life philosophy and setting it perhaps to a story or story tableau in romantic tones. I have done a bunch of these for a fiction novel, a pseudo-Poe variety not too concerned with the appearance of forgery. Let the words flow. One little known quality is the use of sounds and sylables from one word in several other forms within the line or poem "Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered(upon...dreary)beyond mere alliteration and assonance. Descriptions are actually not too detailed, thumbnail symbols, some classical allusions or obscure personal references such as modern poets use today.

One mine starts as "Long in those lands where learning had led me". Some element of horror can creep in at the appearance of death, darkness or the unknown even when the poet claims to find the revelation hopeful or desired.(El Dorado, Annabel Lee)That is subtle. You have to read his poem,s, thankfully short and not many, to get a feel for his style. You can safely avoid his two long poems Al Araaf and Tamberlaine as conglomerated mishmosh though they contain some of his best elements in their infancy.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

Poe used a lot of motifs like animals, premature burial, and vortex. Go to http://www.nidlink.com/~haydenjerry/CSWP7.HTM It gives some examples.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 2001