The work of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was a man of many wonders. People today still have many things to say about him and have very diverse opinions of him. Poe’s family life was very hard and began at a very early age. His father, David Poe Jr., was of very little influence in his life. His first career study was law, but soon left against his family wishes to pursue an acting career. The critic reviews of his acting were very poor. Critics thought his technique was bad. He met Elizabeth Arnold in the year 1806 and married her the same year. In the summer of 1809, after receiving several bad reviews on his work in New -York, he left his wife and their three children. No one really knows what happened for sure. Speculation has it that he had another lover and yet others claim he died. The mystery of David Poe Jr. will remain a rumor for as long as Poe is known.

Elizabeth Arnold, often called Eliza, lived with only her mother when she was young. Her father died when she was the tender age of two. They lived In London, England until Eliza was the age of nine. She and her mother rode on the boat Outram over to Boston. She was orphaned at the age of eleven when her mother passed on. At the age of fifteen she married the actor Charles Hopkins, in Alexandria, Virginia. Hopkins died at the age of twenty, leaving Eliza alone yet again at the age of eight-teen. In the year 1806 she met David Poe Jr. and fell deeply in love with him. The two married that same year. Now as Mrs. Poe, Eliza got rave reviews from critics. She was said to be one of the most prominent actors of her time. In the summer of 1811 she became very ill and finally gave up acting that October. By the time November came she had become a charity case and her family was both unwilling and relentlessly rude to her when she asked for their help. She was all alone and on her death bed. Eliza finally gave up the battle the morning of December 8, 1811. She had not much to give her three children, of which she loved and cherished. For her eldest son, William, she gave a locket of her hair. For Edgar she left a miniature picture of herself and a water color sketch of Boston. She had written a message for her son of only three. It read, "For my little son Edgar, who should ever lover Boston the place of his birth, and where his mother found her best and most sympathetic friends." Elizabeth Poe was buried in the graveyard of St. John’s Church. The cause of her death was Tuberculosis.

Edgar moved in with John and Fanny Allan after his mother died. They lived in Richmond, Virginia at the time, but moved frequently. The Allans never formally adopted Edgar, but Fanny often thought of him as her own child. Mr. Allan had promised Edgar’s family he would give him a good education, since that was the basis of a good business. Fanny had been orphaned at the tender age of ten and was often thought a lot of the reason they took Edgar in was because of pity. Fanny was a good house keeper and very organized, although she was not very well educated. John worked in starting a tobacco plant. By the year 1817, his business was worth more than $300,000. The Allan’s family never really accepted him, often ignoring the fact that John and Fanny would adopt such a hooligan. This never seemed to affect Edgar, although the lonely times must have come often. During their five year stay in England, Fanny became very ill. Most blamed it on homesickness. They returned back to New York right after John’s business collapsed. During the stay in New York, the relationship between Edgar and John got increasingly worse. In the year of 1827, Edgar moved out. On February 28, 1829, Fanny Allan died. She asked to see Edgar on the night before she died, but was unable to. John did not tell Edgar Fanny’s wishes. After that the relationship became better between the two, but Edgar did not go home. John gave him a sum of money and not much else was said between the two for many years.

Sarah Elmira Royster was a girl Edgar had met in the Allan neighbor hood. He had fallen hopelessly in love with her and she felt the same for him. Edgar would often draw pictures of Elmira and would sing to her. She was quite fond of music. After a month, they were engaged. Sarah’s father disapproved of the marriage because at this time Edgar was six-teen and Sarah was only fifteen. Edgar had to leave for Charlottesville, but promised to write her often and she did the same. Sarah’s father intercepted all the letters from Edgar, there fore delaying anything Sarah would write. She decided to end the engagement because she thought Edgar had found someone new. When Edgar came back to Richmond, he was devastated and tried to explain, but her father would not allow them to continue seeing each other. About twenty years later Edgar went searching for Sarah. He found her widowed with three children. She was as beautiful as ever and time did not seem to touch her beautiful black hair or sparkling brown eyes. Sarah had married into a rich family. Her former husband was Alexander Shelton, a very rich, very powerful man. He died at the age of thirty-six. Sarah had since then devoted her life to the church. She was baptized at the St. John’s Episcopal Church. She and Edgar dated and talked of marriage once again, although they never did because of Sarah’s youngest son. If Sarah got married the fortune would then be turned over to her ten year old son and he had no likes for Edgar. They said good-bye and never crossed paths again.

The second most notable love of his life was Virginia. She was Edgar’s cousin, which was not at all uncommon to marry within the family at that time. Edgar went to live with his Aunt Clemm, who was already housing Henry, another cousin, Virginia, his brother William, and his paralyzed grandmother. Edgar called Virginia "my own darling". Edgar wanted to marry Virginia two weeks shy of her being thirteen. They had no money at all, so regrettably, Edgar had to leave in search of a job in Richmond. He was offered a salary of $60 a month, and was the best way he could think of to support his "family". Neilson Poe offered to take in Virginia to help them out and defer the cost of their living, but Edgar knew that he only wanted to get in the way of his marriage to Virginia. He wrote a letter to Virginia saying that if she accepted Neilson’s offer, he would kill himself. On September first he and Virginia took out a marriage license. They had a quiet, private ceremony. On October third, he and Virginia returned to Richmond to start a life. On Monday, May 16, 1836, Poe and Virginia officially got married, witnesses being Muddy and her daughter. Some believe this was their second marriage, but was never really proved that they were married the first time. She was only 14 at the time, but they often denied it to the public, saying she was fifteen. For two years into the marriage, Poe and she had separate bedrooms. While they lived in Philadelphia, Poe taught Virginia everything she would need to know, such as languages, and algebra. He also taught his beloved how to play the piano. Virginia’s health slowly started to get worse and Poe’s worse fear came to life again. His Virginia was dying of tuberculosis. They discovered this one evening while she was playing the piano for him and coughed up blood. This sent Edgar into bouts of depression, but he never left Virginia’s side. She died in 1847, leaving her love behind to perish.

One of my personal favorite works of Poe is the story "The Raven". Its first publication was February 1, 1845, in the American Review. It was published many other times. This poem is a grotesque narrative poem. My interpretation of the poem is that a man was sitting solitude one dark evening, thinking of this lost love and was frightened by a knock at the door, not sure how to react. Thinking this was still in his dream he answers the door in darkness, apologetically answering in the darkness. No one is there and he hears a tap at the window. Going to the window he sees a beautiful bird; a Raven. Opening the window he let the bird in and it perched on his mantle. The man began talking and telling the bird of his troubles. The bird repeatedly said nevermore, nevermore. This angered the man, because he was telling the bird of his lost loves and of his sorrow. Trying to get the bird out of his house, he swooshed it, but failed. The man thought he was godsend and thought he was there to deliver him the message of death. Then the message again, nevermore, nevermore. Quickly he cursed the bird and thought he was from Hell, voicetrously saying so. Again trying to get the bird to leave, but his attempts were of no use. Now the bird stills perched on the mantle until the man passes forever reminding him of his lost loves and all his sorrow. This poem was written after Virgin’s death and some say that it was she as the Raven, and Poe as the man. This is Poe’s most well known poem and the significance of it all is that Poe will forever mourn the death of his beloved Virginia.

The next piece of Poe’s work I would like to comment on would be the poem Tamerlane. The first publication was in May or June, in the year 1827, in the book Tamerlane and Other Poems. The first version of this poem was badly printed and needed 14 editorial fixes. The second version was written in 1823, in a shorter form, and given to Lambert Wilmar. It was not published until 1969. The third version was shortened and printed in 1829 in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. This is the version that is most commonly read today. The fourth version had minor revisions in an extract or the Yankee in December 1829. The fifth version was slightly edited for the book Poems. The sixth version was published in The Raven and Other Poems, with only forty lines and fifty-seven changed. A final version was produced in 1845, in Poestand Poetry of America. It was published by Mr.Griswold in 1850. This poem is in iambic tetrameter. This poem is about a great King and his lost love. It tells of his life as a boy and his hardships. It tells as his greed for power and his struggle to the top. He falls in love with a peasant girl and promises to make her his queen. He forgets about her in his greed and became a great warrior. When he finally returns home, he finds that his love died of a broken heart. This poem was said to symbolize his love for Sarah E. Royster and their situation. This poem first started out as two poems, but put together and it was very well received by the people of his time and still today.

Poe’s grief was unbelievable at times. Looking back at all the hardships he endured it is no wonder he fell into the depressed rages that he did. After Sarah E. Royster left him, his first depression set in and he started his first drinking binge. Then after the death of his beloved Virginia and all the failed attempts at working, the drinking and drugs got worse. It has never been proven, but some say when he was in his worst fits of rage he would do opium. I believe Poe did what he thought he had to do to deal with the problems he had. Even though the choices he made were not of the best frame of mind, people today still deal with depression with binges. There is little documented on the fact of Poe’s depression. He had chronic manic depression. At that time they did not have all the wonder drugs as we do today, so it was left untreated.

When Poe’s mother died, it was very traumatic for a child of the tender age of two years old, but that didn’t hit Poe until later in his life while living with the Allans. It was then that he yearned for a mother, a real mother. Mrs. Allan was kind to him, but Mr. Allan as well as their distant family treated Edgar very harshly. Not including him in the celebrated holidays and ignoring his existence most of the time. When he finally left the Allans, and said good-bye to his love Sarah, he was again saddened by loneliness. Every day that passed without a letter made him even more homesick. Coming home to find out that Sarah received only a few of these letters and that they could not marry, made Edgar distraught with the feeling of being alone. He went to his bouts with drinking at that time. Then as job after job failed you can only imagine how rejected he felt. Mrs. Allan died of the same disease as his mother, so yet another person in the world that left him alone. Things picked up from time to time and it seemed when things would be all right, things would quickly turn worse. Virginia also died of the same disease as his mother and Mrs. Allan. Poe was at the lowest point in his life when his wife died. Although I am sure he felt some compassion towards the fact that she was now out of her pain, Edgar often wondered when it would be his turn to go. I feel much sorrow even now for him and the life he was given to live.

Poe died as mysteriously as some of the victims in stories. On October 3, 1849, Poe was sent in a carriage to the Washington College Hospital. The only written document as to why Poe died was hand written by Dr. John J. Moran. Poe was taken to a room where drunks are normally put in as to not disturb the other ill people. It was quickly decided though that he was not drunk and had not been at all intoxicated. They thought that he may have been mugged because his clothes were very warn and holly. In his short four day stay he went in and out of consciousness, and refused the brandy that was offered to him as a stimulant. In his stay at he hospital Poe was asked about his friends and he is quoted with these words; “My best friend would be the man who gave me a pistol that I might blow out my brains". A week before he was admitted to the hospital he was diagnosed with a weak heart and another doctor said that he may have lesions on the brain. The cause that is stated on his official death certificate is "congestion of the brain". He was originally buried in 1849, and placed in an unmarked grave. After the trees had grown over it, George Spence placed a small block of sandstone, bearing a carved number 80 in it. Nelson Poe heard of this and bought a beautiful three-foot high, white Italian marble tablet, inscribed with the following epitaph: "Hic Tandem Felicis Conduntur Reliquae. Edgar Allan Poe, Obiit Oct. VII 1849" Before it could be placed, a train ran off the tracks and destroyed it. Nelson, not being very wealthy, could not afford another one. Another head stone was made, but he creator of this stone had Poe’s birth marked wrong. Finally the people decided to use the corner of the cemetery block. The remains of Virginia Poe were brought to Baltimore and added to those of Poe and Maria Clemm in 1855. The three that struggled together in life where now reunited in eternity.

Ever since the year 1949, on the night of the anniversary of Poe’s birth, a mysterious stranger has entered the depths of the cemetery, and left a tribute to him. The tribute every year consists of a partial bottle of cognac, and three roses. The presumption for the roses is that it represents the three persons buried underneath the monument. No one to this day knows who the mysterious Poe lover is, but is referred to as the Poe Toaster. Out of respect no one has attempted to find out his identify either. Several of the bottles of cognac are on display in Baltimore, in the Poe House and Museum.