ALONE by Edgar Allan Poe

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ALONE

From childhood's hour I have not been As others were__I have not seen As others saw__I could not bring My passions from a common spring __ From the same source I have not taken My sorrow__I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone__ And all I lov'd__I lov'd alone__ Then__in my childhood __in the dawn From ev'ry depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still__ From the torrent, or the fountain__ From the red cliff of the mountain__ From the sun that round me roll'd In its autumn tint of gold__ From the lightning in the sky As it pass'd me flying by__ From the thunder, and the storm__ And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view__

HI! I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT PEOPLE'S SUMMERIZING OPINION ABOUT THIS POEM. I THINK IT IS ABOUT EDGAR ALLAN POE'S LIFE AS A CHILD. HIS HARDSHIP. "From childhood's hour I have not been" THIS MAY BE DESCRIBING HIS CHILDHOOD. HOW IT WAS DIFFICULT AND THAT IT WAS NEVER REALLY CONSIDERED A CHILDHOOD. TO HIM AT LEAST. WHAT DO YOU THINK THIS POEM IS ABOUT???

THANK YOU!!!!

-- Anonymous, March 19, 2002

Answers

what you said

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2002

Although the title was assigned not by Poe but by a man named Didier, it is brilliantly revealing. (The manuscript calls it merely "Original.") The poem is indeed about the feeling of being alone, even in a crowd. It is about the very private feeling that we are somehow unable to connect with others because we are so different, which may or may not be true. Many people feel this way, although not always for good reason. For Poe, I think there was something genuine in this concern, surrounded by military buddies who enjoyed his satiricical squibs, but desperately searching for similar support for his more serious poems. "Alone" embodies the earnest search for a soulmate, and the fear that there isn't one.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

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