Jeremy A. CroweProfessor Elizabeth M. Owens

English 1102 XTIH01 December 2008

 

Before Poe turned two years old, he was abandoned by his father and shortly thereafter his mother died.

Poe was taken in by the family of John Allan who cared for Poe and helped him obtain an education.

Poe was desperate for acceptance and approval throughout his adolescent years.

He met Jane Stanard, the mother of a friend, and gave her all the affectionate devotion of a son.

To Helenby Edgar Allan Poe

Helen, thy beauty is to me     Like those Nicean barks of yore, That gently, o'er a perfum'd sea,

    The weary way-worn wanderer bore     To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,     Thy hyacinth hair, thy classic face, Thy Naiad airs have brought me home

    To the beauty of fair Greece, And the grandeur of old Rome.

Lo ! in that little window-niche     How statue-like I see thee stand!

    The folded scroll within thy hand — A Psyche from the regions which

    Are Holy land !

“Helen" was written for Jane Stanard after her death. Poe writes of the beauty of both the body and soul even after death. Poe’s suffering as a result of the death of Jane Stannard the woman he loved as a mother, clearly influenced his poem “Helen” and led him to explore the beauty and remembrance of a woman after death.

Poe found love with his Aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia Clemm who later became Poe’s wife. Poe’s love for both women are expressed in his writings after their death.

Virginia Clemm

“To Mother”By 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 youIn setting my Virginia's spirit free.

My mother- my own mother, who died early,Was but the mother of myself; but youAre mother to the one I loved so dearly,

And thus are dearer than the mother I knewBy that infinity with which my wife

Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

Aunt Maria Clem

Poe’s poem “To My Mother” clearly express Poe’s feelings toward Maria Clemm,a woman he loved more than any other mother figure and loved even more for giving birth to Virginia who became his wife. Poe’s work “To My Mother” expresses his feelings after the death of Maria Clemm and his torment as a result

of her death. Poe became almost obsessed with death.

Poe’s “Annabel Lee”It was many and many a year ago,

   In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know

   By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought

   Than to love and be loved by me. I was a child and she was a child,

   In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love—

   I and my Annabel Lee— With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven

   Coveted her and me. And this was the reason that, long ago,

   In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling

   My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsmen came

   And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre    In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,    Went envying her and me—

Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,    In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,    Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love    Of those who were older than we—

   Of many far wiser than we— And neither the angels in Heaven above    Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes    Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side    Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,

   In her sepulchre there by the sea—    In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Poe wrote the poem “Annabel Lee” shortly before his own death. “Annabel Lee” expresses the sadness and anger he felt after the death of his beloved wife. Poe once again explores the death of a beautiful woman whose love was ripped away and taken from him. In “Annabel Lee”, Poe writes about his love for a woman who was taken by a “cold chill” which is autobiographical since his wife was also taken by tuberculosis. Poe writes about a love for a woman that is so painful as a result of death’s betrayal. It is clear that Poe wants love to survive and continue or somehow come back to life even after death.

Poe had a dark and turbulent life and the death and the loss of love he experienced led him to explore death as more than just the end.