The Poetic History Of Edger Allen Poe



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Edger Allen Poe was born on January 19th 1809 in Boston Massachusetts son to Elizabeth 

Arnold Hopkins Poe and David Poe, Jr. Both of Poe’s parent’s were actors and Poe was their 

second child and second son, they later had a daughter. In 1810 Poe’s father abandoned 

their family, and his mother died a year later from pulmonary tuberculosis. Poe was 

then taken into the home of John Allan, a merchant in Richmond, Virginia. The Allan’s 

served as a foster family and gave him the name "Edgar Allan Poe", though they never 

formally adopted him. While with the Allan’s, Poe moved frequently first to Irvine, 

Scotland then to London and then finally back to Richmond, Virginia. Four years after 

returning to Richmond Poe served as a lieutenant in the Richmond youth honor guard 

sparking his military career. Shortly there after Poe decided to attended University of Virginia for 

ancient and modern language, after a year he became unable to pay for classes and dropped out. 

He moved to Boston and attempting to support himself with various odd jobs but to no avail and 

in May 27th 1827 he enlisted in the United States Army as a private. Poe enlisted under a fake 

name “Poe A, Perry” and claimed his age was 22 when he was actually 18.


 Later that year Poe released his first book which was a 40 page book of poetry, titled “Tamerlane and Other Poems.” The book mad a very small splash and gained almost no 

recognition and only fifty copies were printed. Nonetheless Poe continued with both his 

writing and his involvement in the army and in 1827 was promoted to an artificer essentially an 

artillery troop. Fast forward 2 years and Poe is now a sergeant major in the artillery division 

which was at the time the highest ran...

... middle of paper ...

...s a collection of previously published 

stories along it made little money the collect made a rather large splash gather mixed reviews. In 

1840 Poe left the Burton’s Gentleman’s magazine and started his own “journal” Poe intend to 

call the journal “The Penn” although the first issue was not published before Poe’s death in 1849.

Poe died at the age of 40, the cause of death remains a mystery, he was found 4 days before 

wondering the streets of Baltimore on October 3rd, he was allegedly in a delirious state begging 

help, the man that found him quickly brought him to the Washington Medical College where he 

remained in a incoherent critical state until passing the morning of the October 7th.


 Poe did not gain serious recognition until long after his death, he is today considered to be 

one of the great american poet’s and is studied all over the world.

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