As a young poet, Edgar Allan Poe went through a myriad of difficulties throughout his life that stemmed from his mental deficiencies and spurned on his poetic nature. He had gone through various mental health issues, an indigent family life, and was surrounded by death which had a lasting impression on his overall psyche. Poe used his traumatic experiences in life and learned to express his thoughts through writing stories and poems that were superior compared to the rest of his generation.
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809 an grew up with both parents who were traveling actors. His parents, David and Elizabeth Poe raised their three kids under the same roof until they were separated from each other because of death and disappearance. Edgar’s Dad disappeared in 1810 due to unknown causes and his mother lost her battle to tuberculosis the following year. Edgar Allan Poe eventually was adopted by a family but was forced to leave his two siblings, William and Rosalie behind. John Allan is the man that adopted Edgar Allan Poe and showed him a new way of life by financially supporting him and put him in very high-class private schools to get the education he deserved.
Frances Allan, his adoptive mother, was the support and backbone for Edgar as he grew up. As time passed by, Poe had to deal with the loss of his brother from alcoholism and tuberculosis, also, his sister’s mental state was in critical condition and she was described as being “mentally slow”.After this tragic experience, the Allans provided Edgar with a very high class education at a private school in England during the time period of 1815. They soon returned to the U.S 5 years later to continue his education in America.
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The Allans enrolled Poe to college where he attended the University of Virginia, but he wasn’t there very long due to the fact that he was drowning in, debt. He decided to use his earnings on drinking and gambling. After a few encounters, Edgar enlisted in the army and attended West Point. In 1831, he desperately attempted to get himself kicked out by refusing to attend classes and chapel.This is when the start of his writing career began. Poe began to look up to writers such as George Gordon and Lord Byron. He published several stories anonymously and overtime his stories became popular due to his vivid imagination, and the fact that the stories were written anonymously, which held a certain mysterious appeal to the public. In 1835, his cousin Virginia, joined Edgar in Richmond as he was working for the “Southern Literary Messenger”.
At thirteen-and-a-half years old, Virginia marries her twenty-seven year old cousin, Edgar Allan Poe. The marriage was very despised and created lot and lots of drama between the family especially between his other cousin named Neilson. Neilson previously tried to take Virgina into his household but their marriage was approved by Maria Clemm, Edgar’s aunt. Poe made it his number one priority to provide Virginia with the best education and improve her social skills. By the time Virginia was twenty, she was experienced her first hemorrhage from tuberculosis. Virginia remained very fragile for their marriage and then became very ill in 1842.
On January 20th,1842 while playing the piano, a blood vessel popped in her throat while she was serenading her husband while playing the piano. The blood began pouring from her mouth. Time went by, and about 5 years later, Virginia passed away because of the condition she was in. This sent Poe into deep depression. He lived his life fearful of death and the pain of seeing her in the conditions she was in, stayed with him until a death of his own. Before his death, he was inspired by her to write poems and short stories such as “Elenora”, “Bernice” and “Annabel Lee”. “Annabel Lee” reflected the relationship that Edgar Allan Poe and Virginia had. The poem “Annabel Lee” was influenced by the traumatic life experiences that Edgar Allan Poe went through with his wife Virginia.
Edgar Allan Poe uses characterization to show the reason he is head over heels for his significant other “Annabel Lee”. Annabel Lee also known as “Virginia” in real life, was shown throughout the poem to be the loving and nurturing partner Edgar fell in love with. Annabel Lee’s personality and character traits are revealed in this poem to express the meaning of love but also the experiences used in this poem show the dark side of life Edgar was forced to deal with. The dark moments in this poem expresses what occurred between Edgar and Virginia.
“ The angels not half so happy in Heaven, Went envying her and me” (21) Edgar Allan Poe gives us this quote to represent how envious the angels are of Annabel and the relations to the author. The angels have a great amount of power and they are used as a metaphor for death. They are not happy with Annabel and the author because the author portraits her as a super graceful, and very kind hearted woman. Edgar Allan Poe later explains that ¨ẗhe wind came out of the cloud by night. Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.¨ (25), this statement shows us that death wanted her badly.
This relates to the tuberculosis Virginia suffered from most of her life.As death took her away from Edgar, their love never vanished. He continued loving her even when they were seperated. Edgar Allan Poe used characterization to show how death would not stop their love. He would never stop loving Annabel Lee even if she was deceased.
Even the best critics respect Edgar Allan Poe and his work. Poe used different aspects to target the theme that he used in poetry and critics adored him for that. American writers have a unknowingly love for Poe as he tends to use an original sense of imagination and overdetermination. But what critics noticed. That was a recurring trend was the fact that in Edgars poems, everyone was old. Walter Pater, a literary and art critic, noticed that Poe’s characters were very old. Walter observed that Poe portrayed himself as an old character in his poetry. “Annabel Lee” is adored by critics because of its unique metaphors it uses throughout the poems. Another thing they loved about it was how it impacted people’s perception and views on the story.
Edgar Allan poe is a very iconic name when speaking of poetry. The society and generations that have been affected beyond his time is a massive. Poe has discovered many new ways to write and showed deeper value in his poetry to teach the youth of our society new meanings beyond the words on the paper. Edgar Allan Poe has used his writing to learn the moral and value of each experience he went through.
References
- Poetry Foundation – Edgar Allan Poe
- Biography – Edgar Allan Poe
- Encyclopedia Britannica – Edgar Allan Poe
- Grimm Notes – Edgar Allan Poe’s Mental State and its Influence on his Works
- MedicineNet – Tuberculosis and its Impact on Mental Health
- Mayo Clinic – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- PubMed – Effects of Traumatic Experiences on Writing as a Coping Mechanism
