what made Poe write this Poem?What is it about?His Life?Childhood? Adolosence?Is it autobiograpical(pretty eveident that it may be )?

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2003

Answers

Don't forget the narrator is telling us of his youth in a retrospect that sweeps to his present just as the scenery sweeps through time and space to an constant vision source for his whole life. The content though is that memory of the character of his childhood impressions and sensitivity that leads to a vision sense that the narrator mostly lets speak as it did to the young mind, in its original sensual force. Set apart, wandering to an isolated spot, homing in on that solitary cloud which resonated instantly and forever marking self-discovery. he was a young man when he wrote about this younger root beginning and it has Byronic characteristics that Poe would later branch out from into fuller uniqueness- which of course is strongly evident and original here too.

-- Anonymous, August 07, 2003

I think Poe was trying to express the feeling of being alone and using real life scenarios, even his own, to better express the feeling....

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2004

I believe the persona in which Poe has created is speaking about his seperation from the world. He is seperated in all that he knows as a child, in his views and thoughts of the world. The poem goes on to describe how this seperation haunts him throughout his "stormy life" and his inability to relate to others around him because of the "demon in [his] view". And i like the idea of the isolated search of self-discovery and homing in on that solitary cloud. His poem spans a lifetime starting "From childhood's hour". He depicts each period in his life using specific language. In line four he mentions a "spring". This is a word that is commonly associated with the season of the beginning of life. In line nine he directly refers to the aging process with "in my childhood, in the dawn". Later in line sixteen there is a reference to "autumn", the season that symbolizes the ending of life. Shortly after line eighteen, " as it pass'd me flying by", doubled meaning can easily relate to life passing and flying by, you don't realize it until you're old, or when you're dying and you're life may flash before you. Anyhow all the lines afterwards can easily portray images of death or the after-life experiences. I'm not sure of the true punctuation of this poem. I've found it punctuated a million different ways on million different sites. My copy has alot of dashes connecting thoughts and lines with the only period at the end and it's followed by another dash. My original interpretation was that it was connected for the progressing through life effect and the period represented the end, the end of life and the dash left you with the idea of life after death. (And he seems to paint an unpleasant afterlife for himself, whether he chose it as his heaven or he believes that's just where he'll end up. ) Unfortunately i'm uncertain of punctuation. Others include periods, some dashes, or none. ...and the () around "When the rest of Heaven was blue". This makes the line more of a side thought making "the rest" nothing other than background noise. Also showing that he has found solace in his isolation. He is no longer concerned with "the rest" and he has not conformed with "the rest" either. Poe originally wrote this poem in the autograph album of Lucy Holmes. And it was published after Poe's death in a magazine by E. L. Didier in Scribner's Monthly for September of 1875.

-- Anonymous, March 11, 2004

Poe is referencing his feelings of detachment and isolation. Even at the end of his life in this poem (prophetic, yes?) he feels like an outsider and doomed, but somehow content with that. This is one of the most disturbing poems I've ever loved, because he so completely narrates his detachment.

-- Anonymous, March 13, 2004