I'm doing a thesis about american literature. I'm allowed to choose any topic I want besides a biography. I've desided I would like to do the paper on how Edgar Allan Poe's life was reflected in his work. Is there any proof of this? If so what works in relation to what happened? Are there any web sites or books that could help me further. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2004

Answers

when poe's wife was dieing he wrote the poem Annabelle Lee.In the poem it says how they were happy and the angels above were jelse of them so they broke them up by killing Annabelle Lee. Poe was happy with his wife until she got sick. so he wrote down his idea of what was happening. you can go to this web site and look at the poem to understand me more. and the poem Alone he say s how alone he is and what it feels like. you can use that poem too. he worte that after his wife died, so thst shows he felt alone after his wife died.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2004

Wow thank you. Annabel Lee was my favorite poem of his, but I wasn't sure who it was about. This helps me a lot thank you again.

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2004

ALONE IS ABOUT MAKING LOVE WITH SOMEONE YOU HATE

-- Anonymous, May 18, 2004

This is a more complex question than you probably realize. As Yeats(who lived much much longer)commented on the women in his life reflected in his poems, the various real women are not to be equated to the idealized subjects of high poetry. In fact, Poe's poems that specifically address a real woman are not memorable or ones we would call central to his work. That alone should tell you that Poe's life has a core emotional and obsessive effect on his work, more personal and passionate than nearly all other Romantic poets, more honed down and repetitive. The interior avenue to his Muse is his highway and destination. Read "Alone" a mature non-moralizing reflection on his poetic awakening as a child, that tells all by simply recreating the vison experience.

Read "The Lake" at www.eapoe.org. First the early version of another nature contact with his special inspiration. Then the final version late in life. In that one he now can count all treasures, fame and LOVES second to his communion with that poetic core experience. That is definitively saying a lot though it may be the sense of permanence as well as power that convinces him since troubles robbed him of all other fleeting success and love. In "A Dream within a Dream" you see that general despair with both life and memories. In "Annabelle Lee" what you take for granted blinds you to the fact there is no lady in the poem- only the poet clinging to his interior experience, his obsession and bond- rebelling against life and death by sticking to that borderland shore- for many many years. Of course the sentiment reflects his lack of closure and grieving for his wife Virginia, but it goes back further than that and is much more and other than any one lost love itself.

A sensitive natural poet with a complex artful mind and genius for concise tales and verse. A boy orphaned from infancy, losing stepmother, dumped by his first love out of pressure by the family(a pattern to be repeated again and signified in the "highborn kinsmen" of "Annabel Lee"). Father and brother failures and dead from alcoholism. Father and mother actors. Round middle class scgholling in America and Britain where he excelled in the arts. West Point and future spoiled by wild rebellious nature and his clear calling to the literary life. Rebellious against male authority figures. Idealized women. And the influencc of the Romantic movement on his life was so timely and natural that he excelled in authenticity. The analytic rationalist and man of humor and wit, the one who loved to see his brilliance excel and raise up the national literature standard. His life was literature and many of his personal troubles are inextricably bound with his mission.

His stories center on the male Romantic experience. The idealized women in his literature exist only in relation to that like the lost mother he never had. Fixed as his central theme in "The Philosphy of Composition" is the greatest theme: the death of a young woman- yet the perspective from he writes is agonizingly remote and as separate as the despairing lover in "The Raven". His poems and stories are tales, abstractions and entertainments, mood makers and unitive complexes of symbols devoid of false exageration or the supernatural by and large, devoid of pleasant comparisons of devices or opulent descriptions. To know the connection between art(a separate haven for Poe and quite porfessional) and his life you really have to know Poe and try to share his heart. Simply compare Longfellow's poem on his dead wife to Poe's "Ulalume" and you will see the difference. Yet it is harder to put it into words.

-- Anonymous, May 20, 2004

Thank you very much. All of this has been the biggest help.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2004

i got a ? why does some of Poes work relate to clocks i still aint understood that at all its got me confused and i got to do a paper on it so any infomation will be appreciated on my topic thanks

-- Anonymous, February 10, 2005