EDGAR ALLAN POE

American Literature Author

-Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most important and influential American writers of the 19th century. He was the first author to try to make a professional living as a writer.

-January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7, 1849, Baltimore, Maryland)

-was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction

-Second child of David and Elizabeth “Eliza Poe”

-Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young adulthood.

-Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television

FACTS ABOUT EDGAR ALLAN POE

Poet

His poetry alone would ensure his spot in the literary canon. Poe's notable verses range from the early masterpiece “to Helen” to the dark, mysterious “Ulalume.” from “the raven,” which made him world-famous upon its publication in 1845, to “Annabel lee,” the posthumously published eulogy for a maiden “in a kingdom by the sea.”

Master Of Macabre

Most famously, Poe completely transformed the genre of the horror story with his masterful tales of psychological depth and insight not envisioned in the genre before his time and scarcely seen in it since.

Pioneer of science fiction

He was an early pioneer in the genre of science fiction. Poe was fascinated by the science of his time, and he often wrote stories about new inventions.

Father of the detective story

Poe is credited with inventing the modern detective story with“the murders in the rue morgue.” His concept of deductive reasoning, which he called "ratiocination" inspired countless authors, most famous among them sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.

HE MARRIED HIS 13-YEAR-OLD COUSIN.

In 1829, Poe met seven-year-old Virginia Clemm, his first cousin on his mother's side. After living with the child's family for nearly six years, Poe asked her mother for permission to marry the young girl, promising to financially support her and her desperately poor family. She agreed, and the 27-year-old wed the 13-year-old the following year. They remained married until Clemm died from tuberculosis 11 years later.

THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH IS STILL UNKNOWN.

Clemm's illness had a profound effect on Poe. As she grew sicker, he began abusing alcohol. While it was during this time that The Raven made him a household name, he was unable to enjoy and handle his newfound fame—a fact made worse by Clemm's passing just two years after the poem's publication. Poe's mental state gradually deteriorated. In 1849, a man found him incoherent and half-consciously wandering the streets of Baltimore. Curiously, he appeared to be wearing another person's clothing, and he kept calling out the name “Reynolds.” While the delirious 40-year-old was quickly taken to the hospital, he died the following morning.

HE IS CELEBRATED AS THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL AMERICAN WRITER.

Poe is celebrated for his distinctive writing style and pioneering approach to poetry and short stories. Though he lived and worked in the United States, his oeuvre is well-known throughout the world. Of course, Poe is also popular in the United States.

TO MY MOTHER

Edgar Allan Poe

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,

The angels, whispering to one another,

Can find, among their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of “Mother,”

Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—

You who are more than mother unto me,

And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you

In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.

My mother—my own mother, who died early,

Was but the mother of myself; but you

Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,

And thus are dearer than the mother I knew

By that infinity with which my wife

Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

Lines 1-4

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,

The angels, whispering to one another,

Can find, among their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of “Mother,”

In the first stanza of ‘To My Mother’ the speaker makes his feelings clear about the word “mother”. He finds it to be of the utmost importance. So clear and “devotional” that it could not have been coined by any force less than the “angels”.

The speaker can “feel” and imagine a scenario in which all of the angels are gathered around “whispering.” They are discussing the words of love and are unable to come up with anything more “burning [or]… devotional” as the word “Mother.”

Lines 5-8

Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—

You who are more than mother unto me,

And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you

In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.

At the start of this quatrain, the speaker turns to address someone else. Its a woman who he has called “mother” for as long as he has known her. This “mother” figure is not solely a mother to him, but the one who filled his “heart of hearts.” The mother he is speaking about is not his own, but the mother of his cousin, and young wife, Virginia.

He loves her by her own right but is even more devoted to her for the fact that she gave him his true love. It was by her hand that “Virginia’s spirit” was set free. In Poe’s mind, mothers have the ability to foster love within one’s own heart, but also outside. It is from Virginia’s mother that she was made, and therefore from her that Poe received the greatest love of his life.

Lines 9-14

My mother—my own mother, who died early,

Was but the mother of myself; but you

Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,

And thus are dearer than the mother I knew

By that infinity with which my wife

Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

In the last six lines of ‘To My Mother’ the speaker describes the emotions he has for his own biological mother and how those emotions work in tandem with those he has for Virginia’s mother. Poe’s parents died when he was very young and grew up in foster care. It makes sense that he would be seeking out a mother figure somewhere in his life, it was a relationship that he was lacking. In the second line of this section, Poe refers to his mother as nothing more than “the mother of myself.” She was the one who gave birth to him, but Virginia’s mother is much more important. She is the “mother to the one I loved so dearly.”

This poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe, a great American writer and editor. ‘To My Mother’ is one of the famous poems about a mother’s love. It was first published on the 7th of July in 1849. The poem exhibits the heartfelt emotions of the poet for his biological mother, mother in law and his wife. It also illustrates how he connects this sacred relationship with divinity. It is also common for a man to look for his mother’s quality in his life partner.