Poe's LifeWho is Edgar Allan Poe?The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writers oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as Americas first great literary critic and theoretician. Poes reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.Just as the bizarre characters in Poes stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the authors name.The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poes sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls school. Within three years of Poes birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poes siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poes handwriting on the backs of Allans ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business. By the age of thirteen, Poe had compiled enough poetry to publish a book, but his headmaster advised Allan against allowing this.In 1826 Poe left Richmond to attend the University of Virginia, where he excelled in his classes while accumulating considerable debt. The miserly Allan had sent Poe to college with less than a third of the money he needed, and Poe soon took up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.Humiliated by his poverty and furious with Allan for not providing enough funds in the first place, Poe returned to Richmond and visited the home of his fiance Elmira Royster, only to discover that she had become engaged to another man in Poes absence. The heartbroken Poes last few months in the Allan mansion were punctuated with increasing hostility towards Allan until Poe finally stormed out of the home in a quixotic quest to become a great poet and to find adventure. He accomplished the first objective by publishing his first bookTamerlanewhen he was only eighteen, and to achieve the second goal he enlisted in the United States Army. Two years later he heard that Frances Allan, the only mother he had ever known, was dying of tuberculosis and wanted to see him before she died. By the time Poe returned to Richmond she had already been buried. Poe and Allan briefly reconciled, and Allan helped Poe gain an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.Before going to West Point, Poe published another volume of poetry. While there, Poe was offended to hear that Allan had remarried without telling him or even inviting him to the ceremony. Poe wrote to Allan detailing all the wrongs Allan had committed against him and threatened to get himself expelled from the academy. After only eight months at West Point Poe was thrown out, but he soon published yet another book.Broke and alone, Poe turned to Baltimore, his late fathers home, and called upon relatives in the city. One of Poes cousins robbed him in the night, but another relative, Poes aunt Maria Clemm, became a new mother to him and welcomed him into her home. Clemms daughter Virginia first acted as a courier to carry letters to Poes lady loves but soon became the object of his desire.While Poe was in Baltimore, Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will, which did, however, provide for an illegitimate child Allan had never seen. By then Poe was living in poverty but had started publishing his short stories, one of which won a contest sponsored by theSaturday Visiter. The connections Poe established through the contest allowed him to publish more stories and to eventually gain an editorial position at theSouthern Literary Messengerin Richmond. It was at this magazine that Poe finally found his lifes work as a magazine writer.Within a year Poe helped make theMessengerthe most popular magazine in the south with his sensational stories as well as with his scathing book reviews. Poe soon developed a reputation as a fearless critic who not only attacked an authors work but also insulted the author and the northern literary establishment. Poe targeted some of the most famous writers in the country. One of his victims was the anthologist and editor Rufus Griswold.At the age of twenty-seven, Poe brought Maria and Virginia Clemm to Richmond and married his Virginia, who was not yet fourteen. The marriage proved a happy one, and the family is said to have enjoyed singing together at night. Virginia expressed her devotion to her husband in a Valentine poem now in the collection of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and Poe celebrated the joys of married life in his poem Eulalie.Dissatisfied with his low pay and lack of editorial control at theMessenger, Poe moved to New York City. In the wake of the financial crisis known as the Panic of 1837, Poe struggled to find magazine work and wrote his only novel,The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.After a year in New York, Poe moved to Philadelphia in 1838 and wrote for a number of different magazines. He served as editor ofBurtonsand thenGrahamsmagazines while continuing to sell articles toAlexanders Weekly Messenger and other journals. In spite of his growing fame, Poe was still barely able to make a living. For the publication of his first book of short stories,Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, he was only paid with twenty-five free copies of his book. He would soon become a champion for the cause of higher wages for writers as well as for an international copyright law. To change the face of the magazine industry, he proposed starting his own journal, but he failed to find the necessary funding.In the face of poverty Poe was still able to find solace at home with his wife and mother-in-law, but tragedy struck in 1842 when Poes wife contracted tuberculosis, the disease that had already claimed Poes mother, brother, and foster mother.Always in search of better opportunities, Poe moved to New York again in 1844 and introduced himself to the city by perpetrating a hoax. His news story of a balloon trip across the ocean caused a sensation, and the public rushed to read everything about ituntil Poe revealed that he had fooled them all.The January 1845 publication of The Raven made Poe a household name. He was now famous enough to draw large crowds to his lectures, and he was beginning to demand better pay for his work. He published two books that year, and briefly lived his dream of running his own magazine when he bought out the owners of theBroadway Journal. The failure of the venture, his wifes deteriorating health, and rumors spreading about Poes relationship with a married woman, drove him out of the city in 1846. At this time he moved to a tiny cottage in the country. It was there, in the winter of 1847 that Virginia died at the age of twenty-four. Poe was devastated, and was unable to write for months. His critics assumed he would soon be dead. They were right. Poe only lived another two years and spent much of that time traveling from one city to the next giving lectures and finding backers for his latest proposed magazine project to be calledThe Stylus.While on lecture tour in Lowell, Massachusetts, Poe met and befriended Nancy Richmond. His idealized and platonic love of her inspired some of his greatest poetry, including For Annie. Since she remained married and unattainable, Poe attempted to marry the poetess Sarah Helen Whitman in Providence, but the engagement lasted only about one month. In Richmond he found his first fiance Elmira Royster Shelton was now a widow, so began to court her again. Before he left Richmond on a trip to Philadelphia he considered himself engaged to her, and her letters from the time imply that she felt the same way. On the way to Philadelphia, Poe stopped in Baltimore and disappeared for five days.He was found in the bar room of a public house that was being used as a polling place for an election. The magazine editor Joseph Snodgrass sent Poe to Washington College Hospital, where Poe spent the last days of his life far from home and surrounded by strangers. Neither Poes mother-in-law nor his fiance knew what had become of him until they read about it in the newspapers. Poe died on October 7, 1849 at the age of forty. The exact cause of Poes death remains a mystery.Days after Poes death, his literary rival Rufus Griswold wrote a libelous obituary of the author in a misguided attempt at revenge for some of the offensive things Poe had said and written about him. Griswold followed the obituary with a memoir in which he portrayed Poe as a drunken, womanizing madman with no morals and no friends. Griswolds attacks were meant to cause the public to dismiss Poe and his works, but the biography had exactly the opposite effect and instead drove the sales of Poes books higher than they had ever been during the authors lifetime. Griswolds distorted image of Poe created the Poe legend that lives to this day while Griswold is only remembered (if at all) as Poes first biographer.

Poe's TechniquePoes Use of Literary Devices in a Short Story(English SOL 7.4b, 7.5a,b, and c)Even critics who object to Poes subject matter tend to concede that Poe was a master craftsman. The theories he explained as a literary critic are put into practice in his short stories and poems. Poes primary concern was unity of effect, which means that every element of a story should help create a single emotional impact. Poes 1846 tale The Cask of Amontillado is one of his best known works. It is the story of a revenge-obsessed man Montressor who tricks his enemy Fortunato into following him into a catacomb in search of a pipe of Amontillado (a kind of sherry). Over the course of their journey, Montressor gradually reveals his plan to his victim, who is too drunk to notice. Finally, the murderer chains his victim to a wall and bricks him up alive in a compartment. In the following excerpt from the opening paragraphs of The Cask of Amontillado, Poe quickly and effectively foreshadows the gruesome conclusion of the story with a minimum of unnecessary detail. Notice the ironic details probably intended for humorous effect. For example, even the victims name, Fortunato, is ironic because he is, in fact, very unfortunate. At the time Poe wrote this story he was engaged in a literary feud with writer Thomas Dunn English, who Poe would eventually sue for libel.From The Cask of AmontilladoThe thousand injuries 1 of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.2 You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that gave utterance to a threat.3 At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely, settled --but the very definitiveness with which it was resolved precluded the idea of risk. I must not only punish but punish with impunity. A wrong is unredressed when retribution overtakes its redresser. It is equally unredressed when the avenger fails to make himself felt as such to him who has done the wrong.It must be understood that neither by word nor deed had I given Fortunato cause to doubt my good will. I continued, as was my wont to smile in his face, and he did not perceive that my to smile now was at the thought of his immolation.He had a weak point --this Fortunato --although in other regards he was a man to be respected and even feared. He prided himself on his connoisseurship in wine.4 Few Italians have the true virtuoso spirit. For the most part their enthusiasm is adopted to suit the time and opportunity, to practice imposture upon the British and Austrian millionaires. In painting and gemmary, Fortunato, like his countrymen, was a quack, but in the matter of old wines he was sincere. In this respect I did not differ from him materially; --I was skilful in the Italian vintages myself, and bought largely whenever I could.It was about dusk, one evening during the supreme madness of the carnival season5, that I encountered my friend. He accosted me with excessive warmth, for he had been drinking much. The man wore motley. He had on a tight-fitting parti-striped dress, and his head was surmounted by the conical cap and bells. I was so pleased to see him that I thought I should never have done wringing his hand.I said to him --"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day. But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts." "How?" said he. "Amontillado, A pipe? Impossible! And in the middle of the carnival!" "I have my doubts," I replied; "and I was silly enough to pay the full Amontillado price without consulting you in the matter. You were not to be found, and I was fearful of losing a bargain." "Amontillado!" "I have my doubts." "Amontillado!" "And I must satisfy them." "Amontillado!" "As you are engaged, I am on my way to Luchresi. If any one has a critical turn it is he. He will tell me --" "Luchresi cannot tell Amontillado from Sherry." "And yet some fools will have it that his taste is a match for your own. "Come, let us go." "Whither?" "To your vaults." "My friend, no; I will not impose upon your good nature. I perceive you have an engagement. Luchresi--" "I have no engagement; --come." "My friend, no. It is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which I perceive you are afflicted. The vaults are insufferably damp. They are encrusted with nitre." 5 "Let us go, nevertheless. The cold is merely nothing. Amontillado! You have been imposed upon. And as for Luchresi, he cannot distinguish Sherry from Amontillado." Thus speaking, Fortunato possessed himself of my arm; and putting on a mask of black silk and drawing a roquelaire closely about my person 6, I suffered him to hurry me to my palazzo. There were no attendants at home; they had absconded to make merry in honour of the time. I had told them that I should not return until the morning, and had given them explicit orders not to stir from the house. These orders were sufficient, I well knew, to insure their immediate disappearance, one and all, as soon as my back was turned. I took from their sconces two flambeaux, and giving one to Fortunato, bowed him through several suites of rooms to the archway that led into the vaults. I passed down a long and winding staircase, requesting him to be cautious as he followed. We came at length to the foot of the descent, and stood together upon the damp ground of the catacombs of the Montresors. 7 The gait of my friend was unsteady, and the bells upon his cap jingled as he strode. "The pipe," he said. "It is farther on," said I; "but observe the white web-work which gleams from these cavern walls." He turned towards me, and looked into my eyes with two filmy orbs that distilled the rheum of intoxication. 8 "Nitre?" he asked, at length. "Nitre," I replied. "How long have you had that cough?" "Ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh! --ugh! ugh! ugh!" My poor friend found it impossible to reply for many minutes. "It is nothing," he said, at last. "Come," I said, with decision, "we will go back; your health is precious. 9

1. Hyperbole: the thousand injuries * Poe does not tell us exactly what Fortunato has done to deserve Montressors wrath, but Poe deliberately exaggerates the number and severity of Fortunatos offenses only say that those offenses pale in comparison to the way in which Fortunato has most recently insulted Montressor.2. Conflict: The narrator Montressor has been offended by Fortunato and must have his revenge. Montressor does not want to be caught or punished for what he will do, so he must conceive of a plan that will allow him to punish with impunity. The first paragraph establishes the conflict.3. Point of View: The story is told from first-person point of view by a narrator who directly addresses a listener. Some critics believe the narrator is on his deathbed confessing to a priest.4. Foreshadowing: Poe reveals that Fortunato has a weakness for wine, and this will play a major part in Montressors plan.5. Irony: This term describes a contradiction between the appearance of something and its reality. In this case, Fortunato thinks Montressor is trying to talk him out of trying the Amontillado, but the reader knows this is exactly what Montressor wants him to do.6. Setting: The story begins in a carnival. Montressor may have waited until carnival time to have an excuse to wear a mask in public so that no one would recognize him as he walked with his victim. He might have also waited until then to insure that his servants would all leave the house to attend the festivities so that he would have a private setting for his crime. Poe has set the story in an Italian city, mostly likely Venice, where such carnivals where common. He also chose a European locale because he needed a culture, unlike America, in which catacombs were common.7. Setting: Instead of going to a wine cellar, the murder takes his victim to a catacomb. Notice how Poe describes not only the appearance but the smell and the texture of the catacombs.8. Metaphor: two filmy orbs Poe uses this image to describe Fortunatos eyes in such as way that tells the reader how drunk Fortunato already is.9. Irony: Your health is precious. The murderer pretends to show concern for his victims health. The reader of the story knows this, but the victim does not.

How Poe used poetic techniques to convey mood in his poetry:(English SOL 7.5c and d)In his essay The Philosophy of Composition Poe explained that he was attempting to create a melancholy mood with his poem The Raven. He believed the long o sound in the word nevermore had a very sad sound, so he repeated that sound at the end of each stanza. Poe also noted that the saddest subject in the world was the death of a beautiful young woman, so he chose that as the subject of his poem. He then concluded that the narrator of the poem should be the dead womans lover, the one, Poe believed, would be most deeply affected by her death. Throughout the poem Poe uses imagery that conveys a sense of sorrow over the death of the narrators lover Lenore. For example, he describes the dark night outside his room as a Plutonian shore, making an allusion to god of the underworld Pluto. Poe also devotes a great deal of attention to the lyrical qualities of his poetry in order to convey a sense of beauty, the contemplation of which, he believed, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.From The RavenOnce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,1Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,3As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.4"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-Only this, and nothing more."5Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-Nameless here for evermore.And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain6Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;7So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-This it is, and nothing more."Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,8"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,That I scarce was sure I heard you"- here I opened wide the door;-Darkness there, and nothing more.1. Ryhme:...dreary.weary.2. Alliteration: ...nodded,nearlynapping3. Onomatopoeia: tapping4. Repetition: ...rapping, rapping5.Stanza: Once...more. *This selection includes four stanzas from the poem. Each stanza ends with a word that rhymes with nevermore.6. Personifaction:..sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain *The rustling of the curtains sounds sad as if the curtains themselves share the misery of the narrator. Later in the poem a raven will be given human attributes.7. Assonance:...terrors never felt before8. Figurative Language: ...my soul grew stronger *It means he overcame his fear.Meter:octameter acatalectic, alternating with heptameter catalectic repeated in the refrain of the fifth verse, and terminating with tetrameter catalectic (a long syllable followed by a short one, the first line consisting of sixteen syllables, the second line of fifteen, the third of sixteen, the fourth of fifteen, the fifth of sixteen, and the sixth of seven).