David Alan Black

Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 as Edgar Poe. It was the second son of Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe. Both parents were actors, and shortly after Poe's birth, his father abandoned his family around 1810. Edgar was orphaned before the age of three when his mother died December 8, 1811 in Richmond, Virginia, at the age of twenty-four years. His father died at the age of twenty-seven years. After the death of his mother, childless couple, John and Frances Allan, took Poe's paternal grandparents have been a brother William Henry, and foster parents cared sister Rosalie. Allan was a tobacconist strict and impassive and his wife had been lenient. Poe was educated by the aid of Allan, in private academies, excelling in Latin, writing verse and declamation. However, regardless of his education, he was despised by the upper classes of society, perhaps because Poe was never legally adopted by the Allan, yet he was considered an outsider by the elite of Richmond. However, being the daughter of the former actor could have also added to his reputation did not fit into the culture of Richmond at the time.

The loss of his mother at an early age definitely affected Poe, "The angels, whispering to one another, can find among their burning terms of love and devotion No time than" Mother "( to my mother). In Tamerlane, he not only wrote about his father, but he wrote about his mother. He had more respect for his mother he did for his father. In Tamerlane, he speaks much better of his mother. "Oh, it was worthy of all love! Love - as in infancy was mine - it was like the angel minds above envy, her young heart the shrine where all my hopes and thoughts ..." (Tamerlane). He thought of life with his mother and how she could be.

By 1831, Poe moved to Baltimore to live with her aunt, Maria Clemm. There he fell in love and married his daughter and his cousin Virginia Clemm, who was not even fourteen at the time. Ten years later she also died of tuberculosis. He loved his wife and after his death his life just went to pieces. In "The Raven", the character is the morning of the death of "Lenore" when a raven visits him. Poe used the raven as it is a bird that feeds on dead flesh - a symbol of death. "Thy God hath lent a - by these angels he hath sent thee Respite - and nepenthe thy memories of Lenore!" (The Raven). Lenore is thought to be a representation of Poe's wife Virginia died. It would not get the loss of his wife. "Leave my loneliness unbroken - quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take their form from off my door! "(The Raven). In the poem, my mother, Poe wrote about her own mother taking care of Virginia in the sky and becomes her mother too. The death and mourning his wife did, in fact, out of his writing. Poe is very lonely at that moment in his life and misses his wife Virginia. "For" the middle of serious trouble and misfortunes crowd around my earthly path, (path sad, alas, that does not grow even a single rose!) "(At the Departed). Death is a moment in life that scares Poe and he thinks of it as evil, because the two women he loved are dead. He did not always think of death as a bad thing. In Tamerlane, Poe knew that death was a part of life and he seemed pleased with the idea of dying. "Father, I firmly believe - I know - in case of death, which comes to me .... Or how when in the grove "(Tamerlane).

Over the years, Poe's works have suffered much criticism and much praise. Many professionals who have studied the life of Poe and his writings feel that many of his writings show a strong reflection on the real life of Poe. A critic and friend wrote, 'the attraction of the problem of Poe's death is so remarkable that the reluctance of modern criticism on t.