All About Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allan Poe is known for his exceeding talent in writing. His talent allowed him to create disturbing yet intriguing stories that gave moral lessons or quaint entertainment for his aberrant imagination. I actually enjoyed reading Poe’s stories, until they started to scare me because of his constant mention of the un-dead and his eerie descriptions. For example, in The Fall of the House of Usher Poe described his visit with a friend who needed his dire help to figure out his mental disorder. It all sounds interesting until you get into the history of the narrator’s friend and the gloomy house he’s living in, you kind of get freaked out. That was the same feeling I had about Poe’s Ligeia a story that really describes the death of Poe’s wife.  I could never understand why his stories were so disturbed until I realized that sometimes a story or any form of writing can reflect the emotions, events, and actions going on around or inside of the writer.   Poe was born on January 19, 1809. From the time he was born to the time he died on October 7, 1849, Edgar experienced quite a bit of grief. Before Poe was five he lost both of his parents and later lost his money, but that was due to his own gambling addictions. For a while, Poe had a decent life, including joining the army for a while (even though he got kicked out for financial issues) and publishing his famous stories. It was when his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis that Poe began to dabble into depression and alcoholism. Poe went through some troubling times throughout his life, and that was most likely the cause of his ominous work. I just wish that Poe’s wife hadn't died when she did or that Poe wouldn't have gone deep into his spiraling depression. Maybe we would have read a few cheerful stories, by Edgar Allan Poe.

Academy of American Poets: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/130