The purpose of this paper is to discuss the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe, including a brief biography, events in his life that influenced his work, and an analysis of his work.
One of the most celebrated and widely read of the American poets, Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Boston, the son of an English actress and an actor from Baltimore who later disappeared. With the death his mother in 1811, he was sent to live with wealthy foster parents., Mr. and Mrs. John Foster Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. He was sent to England and Scotland for his education, which he continued at the University of Virginia. He later joined the U.S. Army but obtained his release when John Allan, his foster father, paid for his discharge. Poe obtained an appointment to West Point, but he was expelled for gambling and other violations of the academy's strict code of behavior.
After this brief, unsuccessful career in the military, Poe embarked on his literary career, working as a freelance writer and critic in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. He served as an editor for a number or literary magazines, including the Southern Literary Messenger, Burton's Gentleman's Magazine, Graham's Magazine, the New York Mirror, and the Broadway Journal. His own reputation as a man of letters grew out of his contributions to Graham's, which included poetry and literary criticism. Among his earliest works were "Romance" and "Sonnet - To Science," published in 1829; "The Bells," one of his most famous works, was published in 1849, the year of his death.
Poe married a young cousin, Virginia Clemens, who died in 1847. After several unsuccessful attempts to court other women, he became engaged to Elmira Royster, his childhood sweetheart. But the impending marriage was not to be, for Poe died in 1849. His death occurred under mysterious circumstances, shortly after election day, when he had been recruited as a "repeater," one who votes several time...