Edgar old daughter,Virginia Clemm. The following year
Edgar Alan Poe was an American writer, known as a poet and most famous as thefirst master of the short story, especially tales of the mysterious and macabre.
The literary merits of Poe’s writings have been debated since his death, but hisworks have remained popular and many major American and European writers haveprofessed their artistic debt to him. Born in Boston Massachusetts, Poe wasorphaned in his early child hood. Raised by John Adam, A successful businessmanof Richmond, Virginia. Taken by the Allan Family to England, at the age of six,Poe was placed in a private school upon returning to the US in 1820, hecontinued to study in private school. He attended the university of Virginia fora year but in 1827 his foster father displeased by the young mans drinkingand gambling he refused to pay his debts and forced him to work as a clerk. Poe,disliking his new duties intensely, quit the job, and went to Boston.
Publishedhis first book in 1827, Tamerland and Other Poems, in 1827, the book waspublished anonymously. Shortly afterward Poe enlisted in the U.S.
Army andserved a two-year term. In 1829 his second volume of verse, Al Aaraaf, waspublished, and he effected reconciliation with Allan, who secured him anappointment to the U.S. Military Academy. After only a few months at the academyPoe was dismissed for neglect of duty, and his foster father disowned himpermanently. Poe’s third book, Poems, appeared in 1831, and the following yearhe moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his aunt and her 11year old daughter,Virginia Clemm.
The following year his tale “A MS. Found in a Bottle”won a contest sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. From 1835 to 1837 Poewas an editor of the Southern Literary Messenger. In 1836 he married his youngcousin.
Throughout the next decade, much of which was marred by his wife’s longillness, Poe worked as an editor for various periodicals in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, and in New York City. In 1847 Virginia died and Poe himself becameill; his disastrous addiction to liquor and his alleged use of drugs, may havecontributed to his early death. The story a Tell-Tale Heart, by Edger Allan Poeis about a crazy man who has an obsession on another persons eye. The man iscrazy, but thinks that his sickness has sharpened his senses. He claims he canhear everything from heaven and earth and also many things in Hell. With allthese self proclaim heightened senses the man wonders why is he considered mad.The crazy man lived with an elderly man.
They were somewhat roommates. Aspecific characteristic of the elderly man drove the man he lived with crazy. Itwasn’t bad habits or anything that you would think that would bring bickeringbetween roommate. It was something that even the elderly man had no idea of. Itwas the elderly man’s eye.
His eye was kind of deformed, but to the roommate itwas the sign of evil. He has been disgusted of the eye for the longest of time,but has never done anything that will harm the man. After time, the disturbedman plotted against his elderly roommate. During the week that action was goingto take place the roommate was being extremely kind to the elderly man. Hisobjective was to get rid the evil eye from his life.
In a swift instent, in thebedroom of the old man, the disturbed roommate killed the man and rid himself ofhis “evil eye”. His covering up of the incident was, in his opinion,true generous. The body was dismembered by every part and there was no mess. Inthe killers mind he wondered how a person who devised such a plan and cover uphis tracks so well could be branded crazy.
The next afternoon police came to thehouse. A shriek was heard and foul play was a suspicion. As before the mancovered his tracks with virtually no flaw. No evidence of a violent disturbancewas seen and an excuse for the absence of the elderly man was made. The man wasvery confident that his innocence would not be questioned in their mind. In thebeginning of the story the man talked of how his sickness sharpened his senses.This might have proven to be right because while the investigation was going allright the man heard the beating of the elderly man heart under the floor and itdrove him mad.
The confession came out. Edgar Alan Poe has cast a long shadow.He has probably had a greater influence than any other American writer.
AlthoughPoe’s tales and poems range from masterful to ludicrous, Poe exerted his mostsignificant influence as a man who understood the temper of his times, andforeshadowed so much of the future of literature. His wide-ranging tales and hisbroad criticism sought a method for American literature where none hadprevailed. Poe deliberately sought great variety in his tales. A review of hismore than seventy pieces of fiction testifies not merely to his range, but alsoto the significant popular genres he created or made his own which today formthe staples of American fiction. Poe’s greatest influence comes about in themurder mystery. Although murders in fiction existed before Poe, hispreoccupation with the ingenious solution of the crime established in his talesof ratiocination (the process of exact thinking) changed the emphasis from theacts to getting the facts.
Poe’s cerebral and eccentric detective Dupin(“the ingenious are always fanciful and the truly imaginative neverotherwise than analytic”) Because of the power of Poe’s narrative voice,many a tale is indelible. Poe’s imaginative sociology in “The Man of theCrowd” will tell you more about loneliness in the crowd than David Riesmandid. The psychological analysis in “William Wilson” is an excellentand frightening exploration of split personality two generations before Freud.
One would think that Poe would be best remembered for his powerful tales, butmuch of his international reputation rests on his critical acumen that pointedin equally new directions. Poe was among the first to discern the tendency ofthe age toward “the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readilydiffused” In a famous critical piece, Poe recognized Hawthorne as one ofour “few men of indisputable genius;” he went on to formulate hisfamous conception of the short story, which must be designed for “a singleeffect” and every word of which must be made to count. Poe’s method leadsto the symbolist poetry of Mallarme and to Rimbaud and the dream inspiredsurrealists Poe’s brooding heroes and symbolic houses lead to the decadentheroes, new Roderick Ushers with their concern for the artificial detail oftheir shut-in paradise, reflected earlier in such Poe tales as “The Mask ofthe Red Death” and “The Philosophy of Furniture”. Poe is returnedto America through French symbolism, and so made digestible to such importantAmerican poets as T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens.
In opposition to the romanticstress on the expression of personality, Poe insisted on the importance not ofthe artist, but of the created work of art. He stands as one of the few greatinnovators in American literature that took his place in international cultureas an original creative force. I disagree with the author that wrote thatcriticism. One thing is writing is imagination and not fears. Poe has many greattales and poems, in the stories that we read in class did not have to doanything with his fears. Poes life or any ones life would not influence theirwriting.
The stories he wrote are incredibly creative and he has wideimaginations. I like his stories and I look forward to read more stories that hewrote.English Essays
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