WHY DID EDGAR ALLEN POE DECIDE TO USE THE RAVEN AS A SYMBOL OF DEATH? AND WHY DO YOU THINK MOST OF EDGAR ALLENS' POEMS WERE OF DEATH? WHAT HAPPENED IN HIS LIFE TO LEAD HIM DOWN THIS PATH?

-- Anonymous, February 03, 2003

Answers

I belive he writes about death cause its a way he can express his feelings.The Raven for instincc is a very strong way to disgies his way of death.

-- Anonymous, February 03, 2003

In his own "The Philosophy of Composition" (www.eapoe.org) Poe calls the raven an emblemof a mournful and never-ending remembrance. This is not death so much as unrequited grieving. I say unrequited since it may have began when he was a toddler and his mother died. barely old enough to understand, this sensitive poet went on to cherish his loner inspiration even as he lost his stepmother, Mrs. Stanard and his first love. In "annabel lee" we see the same defiant self torture stuck on the boundary between life and death. He is not crossing over, nor comforted by any clear vision or hopoe from the other side. Nor is he bought off by this world in "moving on" or cherished memories. Divine dissatisfaction? And most of all he mines this well of inspiration as his most precious emotion("The Lake") which in any event is his naked fate("Alone"). In choosing to be the poet of that place that is no place, he reamins fairly honest to its isolation and ascetic barrenness, as horrible and unwanted as it can often unbearably be.

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2003

I think he was afraid of death and that was his way of dealing with it and that every women in his life has died.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2003

Hey ok now he was in love with his second cousin come on thats not right seriously thats just wrong and he married his cousin that aint rite either she was too young and she was kin to him ok i love his writing but u just gotta be on a level to understand it there really isnt a way to explain it

-- Anonymous, January 06, 2004

Edgar Allen Poe had gone through several hardships in his own life. He lost almost every woman he ever loved to TB. His Step Father treated him as an alien, and refused to help him when in need. For many years, Poe lived off of nothing in a small apartment writing and receiving as little as $14/ book. He writes of so much death because of all the death in his own life. Writings of death are but an expression of his inner thought, that of which he cannot admit or verbalize to himself. Poe, repeatedly induces self-torture upon himself and the characters in his works. So, as you can see, death was very common in his life- why all of his works contain gothic-senses and settings. However, do not be deceived to think that Poe had only suffered in his life. With the bad came the good. He found himself in love so many times before. Poe was very much the southern gentleman, and treated his women with respect, unlike he had seen many treated in his time. Poe reflects so much death in his writing, because his heart has been broken and hurt so many times.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2005