I already know of a few poems "Annabell Lee" and "To Helen" and "To My Mother", can anyone tell me anymore of them? Thank you for your help.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2003

Answers

I am not sure what you are looking for. A range of inspiration would include women who inspired high works of symbolic art("To Helen" Mrs. Stanard,)"Ulalume" Virginia Poe), women who were being courted inspiring poetic sentiments(the second longer "To Helen" Sarah Whitman), women friends to whom Poe was grateful or just teasing(A Valentine- Fanny Osgood, To My Mother- his mother-in-law Mrs. Clemm), general idealized figures(The Sleeper, Lenore, The Raven), women who encouraged Poe to write Annabel Lee and The Bells.

In all of these the work of art exists for its own value, although the more personalized the poem was for the occasion only, the less "high" or symbolic art was seriously intended. The greater the tribute or personal depth of feeling(the effect on the poet narrator NOT about the lady object)the better the poem and the more remote from real life. Many of those poems are fictions like his stories, made for art and effect not for a biographical record.

-- Anonymous, November 13, 2003