Edgar Allan Poe Influences

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Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century writer, poet and artist. He was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. His parents, David and Elizabeth Poe were struggling actors with two children. Poe’s older brother’s name was William Henry Leonard, who lived with his grandparents due to the family’s financial issues. One year after Edgars birth, his father abandoned his family, and Elizabeth took Edgar to Virginia. Another year later, Edgar’s mother passed away, leaving Edgar an orphan. He was taken in, but not formally adopted by a family named that Allans. At the age of 16, Edgar began a relationship with a girl named Sarah Elmira Royster, who was his neighbor. They fell in love, but Poe enrolled in the university of Virginia, where the…show more content…
A raven, which symbolizes the devil, cries “nevermore,” forever taunting him, a living reminder of the death of his wife. Poe’s own experience of watching over Virginia as she died had a tremendous influence on how “The Raven” was written and how its contents unfolded, it is a forecast of Poe’s own despair that he knows will come when his wife dies. All of what Edgar Allan Poe went through his life was in some way depicted in his works. It seems besides his heavy drinking problem, writing was his only way for him to release and put his thoughts and feelings to rest. “The Raven” is a accurate display of his inner feelings, it allowed him to write down how the slow death of his wife was affecting him and what he foretells in his own future. His detail only came from his own personal knowledge of them, and his only way to release and not become completely submerged in his own imagination was to write his thoughts and feelings down for others to read. Later in life, Edgar Allan Poe fell in love with a woman named Sarah Whitman. She agreed to marry him on the terms that he gave up drinking. After a sober period, he could not control his intense emotions when he attempted and failed suicide. Poe then relapsed with alcohol and Sarah called off the wedding. This led to a near fatal incident with alcohol, afterward Poe went alocohol-free for several

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