Why Did Edgar Allan Poe Influenced His Life

Improved Essays
Whether they focus on fiction or nonfiction, all authors can easily be identified by something that makes their writing stand apart from others and that something can almost always be drawn back to their life experiences. Edgar Allan Poe, one of these such authors, had much death and loss in his life that influenced the way he thought, things he wrote about, and how he wrote. Easily noticed in all of Poe’s works, his imagination is gargantuan and hyperactive. Seen throughout all of his pieces, this extremely active imagination leads to the especially dark and eerie tales that he is renowned for. Instead of just writing his stories down into one huge heap, every story is written down using complicated calculations. Edgar Allan Poe’s grief stricken life was the main influence for the extreme imagination, fantastic stories, and calculated formats found in his work. The life of Edgar Allan Poe influenced everything about his works. His life ended up being one disappointment followed by another. These tragedies started …show more content…
Once a reader has noticed that Poe made “subtle calculations,” they will realize that his poetry was indeed just one rather large calculation (Hannay 1). This calculation allowed Poe to use his style as a tool: instead of the style defining him, he defined the style, molding it so that it would work how he envisioned it (Baudelaire 497). One of the largest parts of Poe’s calculation and style were his complicated rhythms that accompany all of his best pieces (Baudelaire 497). Rhyming was another one of Poe’s favorite literary devices to bend according to his will; his use of rhyme is so notorious that Ralph Waldo Emerson even referred to him as “The Jingle Man” (McGann 120). No matter how much Poe imagines or how deranged the writing is, he always manages to calculate it all out into his own style of rhythm and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Influences

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe’s drug and alcohol abuse, combined with his dysfunctional and unsupportive family, played an extensive role in the darkness and mystery of Poe’s unique writing style. For most readers, the name of Edgar Allan Poe has become a symbol of horror and fear. Furthermore, the images and motifs created by Edgar Allan Poe have an immense influence on the following generations and works of other authors, so that they can become immersed in the popular culture. Poe’s memorable images and quotes became an essential part of the world’s cultural heritage, giving inspiration to the horror genre for years to come. As a result, many fans of the horror genre don’t even rate Poe’s works at its true value, taking his writings for granted.…

    • 1687 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe Edgar Allen Poe lived a very hard life, losing many people who were important to him. Edgar lost his mother, fiancé/cousin, and his step mother. Edgar had a tough life and shows it through his writing. Almost all of his stories are dark and have something to do with death.…

    • 345 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe has become a vital figure in the world of literature based on his gothic short stories, Cask of Amontillado to The Fall of House Usher and Tell-Tale Heart, each unique in their own way as they have attracted more people to his books for over two centuries. In his short stories, Poe has shown numerous amounts of descriptive and unsettling imagery with different techniques, adding an eerie mood along with suspenseful syntax. Poe not only incorporates techniques such as unsettling imagery, but morbid diction as well, using them to their fullest to capture the interest of the reader. He demonstrates a brilliant command of language and technique, using his own way of writing and imagination to captivate the reader, making them anxious…

    • 1111 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The events of Edgar Allen Poe’s life definitely affected his way of writing. Poe suffered greatly in life, which made him a mysterious man who wrote mysterious stories. Many of them have personal reasons behind them, which explain why they’re consistently strange. Some themes in Poe’s life that merge with his writing were his madness, losing loved ones and alcoholism. If Poe hadn’t had such a hard life, maybe he wouldn’t be a writer, or maybe his stories wouldn’t constantly be about sorrow and suffering.…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe grew up having a life which would have been hard for anyone to deal with, yet he did it and managed to benefit from his hardships by writing about his misfortunes. From a young age, Poe felt abandoned and lost, which resulted in his turning to writing as a lifestyle rather than just a hobby or a passion. His hard life resulted in Poe writing in the gothic style, with much emphasis on the darker side of human nature and the dark, twisted parts of the world. Edgar Allan Poe fosters a sense of dread which is synthesized with repetition such as that found in “The Raven” as well as the intense diction found in “The Premature Burial” in order to convey the idea that fear deteriorates a person’s mental sanity as time goes on.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe was born, January 19th, 1809 in Boston, MA and passed away October 7th, 1849. David Poe and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, were professional actors and gave birth to three children, Rosallie, Henry, and Edgar. By the time, Edgar became three years old, him, his younger sister and his older brother were orphans. The three children were separated to live among different parts of the family after their father deserted them and their mother died from Tuberculosis. Edgar was sent to live with John and Frances Allan in Richmond, Virginia.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe’s Life Influences on His Writings Edgar Allan Poe was an ominous author who introduced the horror style of writing in American Literature (The Influence of Edgar Allan Poe’s Life on His Morbid Writings 1). Compelling stories by him gave modern-society a dark image of what he was like. Similar to many of the characters in his works, Poe struggled with alcoholism, which made him insane (Handmade Writings 1). Many thrilling horror stories by Poe were connected in some way to his impenetrable life experiences and struggles.…

    • 645 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe says, “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world”. Although not many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works surrounded the idea of the death of a woman, most of his poems, if not all, portrayed death. He became renowned for his stories and poems about mystery and horror (Say Media, 1). The extent of Poe’s influence on our culture is immense. He in fact invented the modern day detective story that many people enjoy and cherish today.…

    • 2372 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poe took the worst parts of his life and turned them into amazing horrors that always impressed other people. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing was impacted by his personal background, culture, and the time period in which he lived. Edgar Allan Poe experienced a difficult childhood. Both of his parents passed away from Tuberculosis before…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe, was a person of great uniqueness, for his life was a great obstacle with many up and downs. With one of those Great achievements was his narrative poem, “The Raven”; Published in January 1845. That clearly shows his well known writing style of a dark metaphysical vision, musical rhythm of his poems, and style in a metrical language. As well, Poe writing clearly reflects on his extraordinary life that show his true meaning of his work and why his, work is looked upon to, by so many. Edger Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1807 and died on October 7, 1849; he was a very well known; writer, poet, and critic.…

    • 2181 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being the author of many dark and grotesque stories, Edgar Allan Poe made his mark on humanity by truly showing what it means to be human. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. He was later adopted by tobacco merchants in 1811. Poe inherited his uncle’s fortune in 1825 and that is when he starts his writing career. Poe is a brilliant short story writer that trampled upon light and fluffy works.…

    • 1697 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Darkness in Edgar Allen Poe Edgar Allen Poe was an extremely significant person in American Literature. Poe was, and still is one of the most famous horror writers in history and will be remembered for his dark stories, and poems. He greatly influenced America with his mysterious and miserable ways. Even though that Poe was an extremely important and significant person in American Literature he struggled through life. He had many different mental problems that were caused by some of the tragedies that happened in his short life.…

    • 1825 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe had different ways of expressing his constant struggles with everyday life through his work which shaped the way he wrote. Poe was a man with many challenges to overcome and with a little help of his deranged imagination produced infamous pieces of literature. In “A Tell Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe draws on his own experiences with mental illness and death to create unique works of gothic fiction that explore guilt,religion, and mortality. Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. Poe’s parents, who were actors, died when he was a young child.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe in “The Raven” uses figurative language, imagery, and tone to develop the theme of this terrible creature that torments him. By adding this language he allows for the poem to be very descriptive and it allows one to see the poem come to life. Poe rhymes all throughout the poem, like when he says, “While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping.” (3) This rhyming contributes to the flow of the poem.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe experienced personal tragedies in his life which influenced his writing. His works were considered gothic and usually contained a melancholy and depressed tone. Most of his works also dealt with the theme of death, usually of a woman in the narratives. This style of writing most likely stemmed from the loss of his young wife Virginia. Poe became extremely depressed after her death due to his grief and feelings of loss over Virginia.…

    • 1011 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics