Edgar Allan Poe- the Similarities Between Life and Poetry

Poetry is the manner one would express very complex feelings or emotions. Many poets who connect with their audiences are able to describe, in writing, the emotion of a certain situation. These poems become autobiographical in the sense that the poem is drawn from the poets own situation and observations. Often, in classical poetry, a poet is able to capture the emotion of the situation so that the reader can make a connection. One of the greatest exponents of this was Edgar Allan Poe. He was able to captivate an audience and almost hypnotise them with his use of language and rhythm. However, his tragic life affected the themes behind his poems, which have been described as early gothic literature. His ‘weapon of choice,’ was the theme of†¦show more content†¦Poe himself described the poems’ main theme in an essay he wrote shortly after the poem was published. He describes the Raven as ‘a poem that reveals the human penchant for self-torture.â€℠¢ Essentially, Poe’s life was centred around self-torture. He was a self-confessed alcoholic and a known user of substances such as absinthe and opium. It is possible that Poe wrote the Raven as a response to the emotions he was experiencing regarding his wife’s illness. The feelings of loneliness, madness and frustration experienced by the narrator could quite possibly have been those felt by Poe at the time. The narrators’ undying devotion to his lost love reflects that seen by Poe during his wife’s illness. Poe, faced with his wife’s mortality, would have been reflecting on the future and on when, if ever, he could forget her. It’s possible that Poe wrote the Raven so that his wife’s memory would never be forgotten and the fact that every aspect of the poem has been considered could reflect his desire for his wife’s memory to not be tarnished. However, this was a form of self-torture in itself, seeing as it would cause him to confront those same feelings every time he came across his poem, even after his wife’s death. Poe’s love for his wife could not be forgotten, as expressed in his poem, Annabel Lee. Annabel Lee was published after Poe’s death in 1949. The poem is a ballad but contains a very loose structure, and almost could be classifiedShow MoreRelatedEdgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson Compare and Contrast Essay1596 Words   |  7 PagesEdgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson, Compare and Contrast Emily Elizabeth Dickinson and Edgar Allan Poe are two of the biggest poets in American Literature from the 1800s. They had many things in common from their writings about death and sadness, because of their unfortunate losses in life, to the fact that they were both born in Massachusetts. They were also different in many ways. They were different in the way they looked at life and wrote about their experiences from it. 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