how many girl friends did Edgar Allan Poe have after his wife Vergina Died? where did she die? why did she die? what year did he write Annabelle Lee? When did the world first discover him? how did he come up with his ideas, and did he put some of his pain and sickness in his writting? answer them and get a award $$.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2004

Answers

Framing the questions right is just as important. Poe only seriously courted two other women but had interest or friendly relations with several others, romantic or not. Sarah Whitman and his old flame Elmira Royster Sheldon. Annie Richmond was important. Annabelle Lee was written months before he died so various women get all mixed into the"inspiration" for the poem. What constitutes the "world" and "discovery"? His first publications of tales? Fame? What is meant by "ideas"? His scary stuff or plots? His themes? He had many sources and personal creative choices but I suppose you mean what weird psyche emitted these "bad dreams" as if a writer had no imagination or outside sources to craft. Certainly not drugs, though some side effects of alcohol made him prone to certain phsyical mental states.

He certainly put his primary pain, his innermost feelings into the effects of his stories- but that is not always to be associated with sensational details or autobiography by any means. There always was a genuine personal core he centered on in most of his works that was more than the Dark Romantic pose or genre conventions. I think he considered that struggling self, that solitary perspective to be his proper Muse for anything profound or serious, especially poetry.

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2004