January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849
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Reasons to study poetry:
 1. To learn creativity
 2. To make yourself more well-rounded
 3. To better understand yourself through
understanding others.
 4. Aesthetics (beauty)
 5. History
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Born Edgar Poe in Boston, Mass.
Orphaned young; mother died shortly after
father abandoned family
Taken in by John and Frances Allan of
Richmond, VA, but never formally adopted
Attended University of VA for one semester
Enlisted in the army, failed as a cadet at West
Point, parted ways with the Allans
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1827 – a collection of poems published,
Tamerlane and Other Poems
Switched focus to prose, literary criticism
1835 – married Virgina Clemm, his 13-year-old
cousin
January 1845 – published “The Raven”
1847 – Virginia died from Tuberculosis
Was planning to produce own journal, The Penn,
but died before production
Cause of death is unknown; speculations:
alcoholism, brain congestion, cholera, drugs,
rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and heart disease
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Poe says poetry is the “rhythmical creation of
beauty.” Beauty is the province of the poem.
It is an immortal instinct that we have to
reach for beauty.
Poe always lived in search of something
within reach.
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Four techniques to obtain music and beauty:
 1. Onomatopoeia
 2. Alliteration
 3. Strong rhythms and uncoventional metrical
patterns
 4. Repetition – dramatic effect, emphasis; helps
create atmosphere
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Themes
 1. an air of resignation to despair
 2. romantic love – women are idealized
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Famous works
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“The Raven”
“Annabel Lee”
“Lenore”
“To Helen”
“A Dream Within a Dream”
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Main body of work: 1832-1849
Disdained longer forms
 1. physical and emotional health not good
 2. financial condition – had to make money and
short stories the best way
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Short story rules
 1. must be short enough to read in one sitting
 2. must create one single effect
 3. must not contain one word not adding to effect
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Three types
 1. humorous
▪ Satire
▪ Exaggeration
▪ Bordering on ridiculous
▪ Purple Prose: take a simple situation and pile on one absurdity
after another
 2. Detective
▪ Poe is the “father of the detective story”
▪ Elements
▪ Based on analysis and deduction
▪ Solution found in a step-by-step analysis of the crime
▪ Reader’s interest centered on how crime is committed
▪ Monsieur Auguste Dupin is Poe’s little French detective
in those short stories. He is the literary father of
Sherlock Holmes
 3. Horror
▪ Mainly achieved through mood and atmosphere.
Primary to plot
▪ Accumulations of horrors piled one after another,
rushing to a climax
▪ Reader held in suspense until the last possible second
 Poe was obsessed with being entombed alive and
also with being forgotten
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Famous works
 The Fall of the House of Usher
 The Tell-Tale Heart
 The Purloined Letter
 The Cask of Amontillado
 The Pit and the Pendulum
Poe was editor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine
in Philadelphia when “Usher” was published on
September 18, 1839.
 Five months earlier: “The Haunted Palace”
published in the Baltimore Museum.
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 “By ‘The Haunted Palace’ I mean to imply a mind
haunted by phantoms – a disordered brain. A gifted
mind becomes haunted by evil things and memories.”
 Poe feared going insane and had many bad things to
haunt his life
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Main characters: Madeline and Roderick
Usher, the Narrator, the House
Conflict:
 Man v. Man
 Man v. himself (fear)
 Man v. the elements
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Point of View: 1st person (narrator)
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Setting: House of Usher
 actual location never given
 Gloomy setting increases Usher’s depression, but
also is an extension of his emotional state
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Theme: Vulnerability of the Human Mind
Climax: revelation: put her in the tomb alive
Falling action: Narrator flees
Resolution: House and family dies
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Romantic Elements
 Fascinations with antique
 Mysterious
 Exotic
 Supernatural
 Focus on Self
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Gothic Elements
 House – bleak and remote
 Thunderstorm
 Tarn (lake) and misty vapors
 Strangeness of people in the house… physical and
psychological torment
 Supernatural element often present
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ZIGZAG – story of division and
fragmentation: house and inhabitants