Biography of Edgar Allan Poe

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The life of Edgar Allan Poe is not a tale of ease. Poe’s life was full of personal and fiscal disaster. These disasters help to mold some of the most ominous and intellectually challenging poetry ever written. For the short duration of Poe’s life, he was seen as a literary critic rather than an author. To the modern generation his unbeknown status seems bafflingly inconceivable, considering his now acclaimed publications. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing was very much dictated by his life. The mournful tone of Edgar Allan Poe’s life created his literature; death and all his friends narrated Poe’s life. Edgar Allan Poe shows his life’s constant despair through his poetry and short story writings.
Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 to a pair of “Itinerant actors, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Poe.” (Tilton 12). The Poe name was one of strong regard because of their strong hand in the revolutionary war (Tilton 12). In 1809, two years after his brother, Poe was born (Tilton 13). This family wouldn’t remain untied long, before Edgar turned one his father disappeared (Padgett 20). This event left his mother, Elizabeth Poe, in great poverty (Tilton 13). With the birth of Poe’s younger sister came even more financial struggle for Poe’s family (Tilton 13). Although Elizabeth’s acting ability continued to amaze audiences, her pay was not adequate to support her children. On December 8, 1811 Elizabeth passed away due to a vigorous case of tuberculosis (Padgett 23).
Poe was soon absorbed into the Allan household (Tilton 14). Frances Allan became particularly devoted to the young Poe, as she had no children of her own. After growing up in a more privileged setting the business of Mr. Allan began to fail (Tilton 15). As a result Allan realloca...

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... expected that his life long alcoholic habits led to his untimely death.
Edgar Allan Poe shows his life’s constant despair through his poetry and short story writings. Poe’s life was full of personal disaster, but among them all the death of Virginia Clemm was the most influential and detrimental to Poe. Virginia was believed to have inspired the poem “Annabel Lee” (Bloom 124). Throughout this poem Poe shows his heart for his wife Virginia. He writes of how Virginia lived “with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me” (Poe 112), but through the alias Annabel Lee. Poe then shows his anger stating “The angels, not half so happy in heaven, 
Went envying her and me-
Yes! - That was the reason that the wind came out of the cloud by night, 
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee” (Poe 112). Through these simple words Poe shows the impact that Virginia left on him.

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