I think that this quote from "The Black Cat" summarizes all of this perfectly, .
Who has not, a hundred times found himself committing a vile or a stupid action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is law, merely because we understand it to be such?".
And this is what has made people so interested in Poe for all of these years, and unless we can ever escape death and fear, it will continue to draw people in.
In one of Poe's poems he wrote by this very idea. He wrote about what he lost, or what he could not have. In "The Raven" a bird repeats "nevermore" over and over to all of his questions about his dead lover. He repeatedly asks the bird questions and still gets only one answer. Here he is dealing with death as a loss, and it was the loss a very beautiful woman. But for him beauty was defined differently than it is now; it is not flowers and butterflies, to him beauty was anything that excited your soul. So by his definition death is one of the most beautiful things one can ever experience. "Beauty of whatever kind in its supreme development invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetical tones" He missed this woman terribly and the raven's, "nevermore" seems to be a reminder that she will never be back. This is a very good example that Poe was not at all afraid of death. This poem may be one of the most important writings of Poe because it can cancel the idea that he was crazy. He deals with death so much in his work that it is an easy way to for us to explain what we don't know. Even today, when some one has a mental problem that is not understood, we are quick to say that he is crazy. It's like a cheap title we tag on things we can't explain, although this poem explains Poe's relationship with death in his publications.
