Edgar Allan Poe Death
Edgar Allan Poe - DeathEdgar Allan Poe wrote about many subjects. Many of the same ones appear in his writings over and over again. The most obvious of which, in his poems, is the death of beautiful, young women. Some critics and people who knew him personally think that many of Poe’s poems were autobiographical while some say that they were not. The controversy is a well-founded one with ample evidence to support both sides.
In his life, Poe lost many of the women he loved either when they were very young. His mother, an older woman that he was in love with as a child, and wife all died of tuberculosis. Many of his relationships were doomed romances. He was constantly declaring his love to many different women.(Magill 2244) Keeping all this in consideration, while reading his poems it is easy to come to the conclusion that his love life has had a profound effect on his writing.
Many of his poems that in some way deal with or describe the death of beautiful ,young women all have some similar elements . First of all, the women in the poems are all thought to be the perfect and irreplaceable. In “Annabel Lee” the lines, “And neither the angels in Heaven above, / Nor the demons down under the sea, /Can ever dissever my soul from the soul /Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”,(Willis 9) means that this woman was so perfect that the narrator can’t live out his life without thinking about her all the time. In “ The Raven” the narrator is talking about his lost love and says “For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore–/Nameless here for evermore.”(Poe 5) The word “rare”is there to express the fact that the narrator thinks that his love was one of a kind. Another common occurrence in the poems is the dead women being young. In Annabel Lee the man in grief says that his love died “…many and many a year ago,”(Willis 9) which leads the reader to believe that this event happened when they were very young. In the poem “Lenore” the line “An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young”(Poe 4) expresses both the idea of being beautiful and being young. Finally, having a narrator that is hurting so much that he does not want to get over the pain and the grief of losing some one that he loved so much is another similarity. In “The Raven” this is easily understood when the narrator screams at the mysterious bird and says, “Leave my loneliness unbroken!” (Poe 7) In “To One In Paradise” it is obvious that the narrator thinks about his lost love constantly when he says, “And all my days are trances,/And all my nightly dreams/ Are thy dark eye glances,/ And where thy footstep gleams.”(Poe 12)
The poem with the most obvious autobiographical elements is “Annabel Lee”. The line, “of my darling-my darling- my life and my bride,” certainly suggests that Poe could very well have been writing about his wife, Virginia. Frances Osgood, a close friend of the Poe’s and formal love interest of Edgar, said that the poem was written about Virginia. However, a man by the name of T.O. Mabbott thinks the poem is purely fictional and should not be viewed as autobiographical.(Poe 10)
Stephan L. Mooney ,a critic of Poe’s work, believes that Poe wrote in order to get a single effect across and not to express his emotions. He makes exception for personal letters and a few poems that are obviously written for people in his life. He thinks that drawing the conclusion that Poe’s work is autobiographical is wrong. He believes that “…Poe is rarely interested in expressing his emotions.”(Mooney 26).
Other critics have different opinions. Some feel that the autobiographical elements in his poems are obvious. They believe that after losing his mother, wife, and other women, the theme of lost love in his poems is inevitable.(Magill 2244)
It is easy to understand both sides of the argument. Choosing sides is not as easy. On one hand people who knew him say that Poe wrote these things about experiences in his life and there are poems that could easily express Poe’s feelings about his wife. (Poe 10) On the other hand, many critics say that Poe wrote his poems to tell a fictional story and everything that was written in these poems is to get across the single effect that each individual poem is meant to portray. (Mooney 26) It could also be a mixture of both. It is impossible to not see autobiographical elements in his poems. It is very hard to believe that the similarities are just a coincidence. Poe could have been inspired by the events in his life. He could have used this inspiration to write these poems but each individual poem might not necessarily be written about a particular person or event in his life.
In conclusion, there really is no definite answer because Poe never came out and directly said whether or not each individual poem was about his life. Deciding this is a guessing game of sorts. Examining the facts can only take the reader so far. In the end it is up to each individual to decide for themselves what they think about the controversy. They must find in Poe’s writings their own personal interpretations and use it to mean whatever they need it to for their own personal use.