Edgar Allan Poe was born to Elizabeth and David Poe in 1809. In December of 1811, Poe lost the first and arguably the most important woman in his life, his mother Elizabeth. His father died shortly after his wife, and Poe was taken to live with John and Frances Allan in Great Britain. He attended school kept by the Misses Dobourg and later the Manor House School at Stroke Newington. The Allan’s then moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Poe enrolled in Joseph H. Clark’s school. He was doing well in school, but decided to close his education there and move to Baltimore, Maryland and enroll in William Burke’s school. It was here

that Poe met the first woman who would inspire one of his poems. Jane Stith Stanard was the sister of Robert Craig Stanard, one of Poe’s classmates at William Burke’s. She ended up being the inspiration for “To Helen.”

The poem begins by expressing joy and happiness in Poe’s tone. While writing such lines as a “kingdom by the sea,” Poe is saying that the life that he and his wife were leading together was perfect, happy, and peaceful. He uses the sea in the poem to symbolically represent these feelings. He also describes their life together in the phrase, “lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me,” saying that she lived for him and that he lived through and with her. They loved each other so much that they could not imagine life without the other. However, as the poem continues, the reader sees the dark aspect that is attached to so much of Poe’s work. The thoughts of the moon shining every night to remind him of that which he had lost, of the stars never rising without her memory, and of the way he spends his nights next to “her tomb by the sounding sea,” show how Poe exemplifies darkness even through something so beautiful as love. In the third stanza, Poe describes how Annabel Lee’s life is lost. The “chilling wind” which is meant to symbolize her sickness is what takes her for him. He says that her highborn kinsman carried her away from him. This could be a direct representation describing the pallbearers at her funeral. He almost blames her death directly on the higher powers by claiming that the angels were jealous of the two of them and caused the wind to chill his bride and seize her life. Poe’s strongest and most emotional expression can be seen in the last stanza of this poem:

In conclusion, the poem “Alone” must also be assessed when discussing the effect that loss of women has had on Poe’s life and life’s work. Poe makes it obvious in this poem that he did not have the opportunities in life that others have had. He presented himself as a man who was never loved, and didn’t have the experiences as a child that normal children had. This is proven in the opening line as Poe states, “From childhood’s hour I have not been/As others were-I have not seen/As others saw.” He lost his mother as a very young child, who is the most influential woman in a child’s life at that age. And he continued to love women and lose women all throughout his life. Poe continues to say, “And all I loved – I loved alone.” This shows how all of the women to whom Poe gave his heart to left him for one reason or another. He explains that he could only see the bad things in life, never the good. He claims that a cloud, in the form of a demon, is the reason that he does not see the good things in life. This is shown in the last line of the poem as he says, “When the rest of Heaven was blue/ Of a demon in my view.” As a result of all of this, Poe lived his life alone, as the name of the poem states.

In this stanza, the true feelings of Edgar Allen Poe are certainly obvious. He pours his whole soul into this single stanza. He cries out that his one true love is really gone. This poem comes straight from Poe’s life and the lost he felt when his beloved wife Virginia died.

When one looks at this poem in depth, one must consider the reason behind the rhyme scheme and what it is meant to represent by the poet. It is most obvious that Poe’s rhyme scheme in this poem reinforces the theme of inconsolable loss through the emphatic repetition of “Nevermore.” Because this refrain comes at the end of each stanza, it is even more powerful in its effect. What is not quite as obvious as this repeating phrase is the purpose of the overa

Some topics in this essay:
Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, Explaining Text, Virginia Poe, Raven” Poe, Helen” Poe, Annabel Lee’s, Allan Poe, University Virginia, Military Academy, throughout life, “the raven”, “to helen”, poe’s life, loved lost, allan poe, edgar allan, grief feels loved, feels loved, poe suffered, excessive cloying, endured throughout life, poem “ideal love”, wife virginia died, beautiful annabel lee/,