Dark Writing : The Dark Literature Of Edgar Allen Poe

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dreamed before” (Edgar Allan Poe). Darkness and sadness are strong characteristics of Edgar Allan Poe’s writing. The tragedies during his life, such as the death of his biological and adoptive moms, followed by the death of his young wife Virginia were important factors which formed his gothic style. Poe is known for his drinking problems and use of drugs. Those habits had a big influence in his life and in his works.

An example of when Poe gives a gloomy feeling to the reader would be “(When the rest of Heaven was blue)/ Of a demon in my view--” (Poe 21-22). This could be considered dark because Poe is showing that while others saw the good in life, all he saw was the evil. With the use of poetic devices, Poe is also able to make the theme of his poem apparent.

Edgar Allan Poe has always been known for his depressing and sad writings. I have no doubt that these feelings would follow him into the present day. Poe didn’t have a good family life growing up. His parents were both absent in his childhood, and he was separated from his brother and sister to go off and live with John and Frances Valentine Allan. Poe was always a very talented poet growing up, but his literary passions were not supported by the household he lived in. Being suppressed as a child probably didn’t help his mental health nor did it help to cope with day-to-day life. As a young adult, Poe went to the University of Virginia but he could not afford to pay the

Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King are famous for their works in horror. Who are these authors and why do they write these horrifying tales? Edgar Allan Poe’s life and literary works are more ominous than Stephen King’s life and literary work.

“Annabel Lee” is Edgar Allan Poe’s second most famous poem. It was published immediately after his mysterious death in 1849. Poe used imagination and fantastic elements in nearly all of his work. He had a wild imagination which was becoming more of the norm, leading into the American Romanticism era. Using fantastic elements, he wrote strange and unusual pieces that dug into the minds of readers and put dark, creepy images inside them, causing them to fear the unlikely. He was excellent at getting under the readers’ skin, but he was able to do it in a way that made them want to read even more. This skill is one of the reasons why Poe was a fantastic writer. A great deal of his work included extraordinary detail. The ability to do this in short stories and poems is actually quite impressive. Two extremely important themes in this poem is love and envy.

Edgar Allen Poe is an individual who fancied the darkness that is so evident in the gothic literature that he is known for. Edgar had a less than ideal child hood, with his father leaving his family unit and his mother dying while he was only 3 years old (Poe’s Life). As a result he was separated from his two other siblings who went to live with different families. It is thought that because of the tumultuous relationship Poe developed with his foster father John Allen, that he was inspired to focus on darker writing styles. In fact, John disdained Edgar’s entertaining the idea of being a poet rather than enlisting in the tobacco industry that had made him so wealthy (Poe’s Life).

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat,” “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,” the audience gets an insight into the author’s uniquely pessimistic view on life. For example, in Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe describes the madness and grief of a man following through his plan to execute a beloved old man, whom he befriended. The main character’s methodical procedure for conducting his murderous plot creates an atmosphere that augments anxiousness. Poe’s use of symbolism, melancholic themes, and motifs is meant to bring forth senses of distress or despair in some cases, as well as comfort in other cases for audiences to sympathize with.

Emotions are tricky to manage. No matter the self-control one could have, emotions can always squeeze their way to the top and cloud judgment. This is no different for the man named Edgar Allen Poe, but he was able to use words as a way to express and deal with those everlasting emotions and feelings. Annabel Lee best expresses Poe’s feelings about the death of his wife because it gives a clearer meaning as to how he was conveying his devastation; Poe writes about the “childlike” love he had experienced, to the “angels and demons” and finally, about his love’s “tomb” by the sea to, unlike Ulalume: A Ballad, describes their love, to where she died and finally, how Poe dealt with the loss of losing his wife.

Some believe that Poe was a strange, dark and depressing writer. In some ways he was. But there is a reason behind it; Poe had a very unfortunate upbringing. The main problems were that his biological father left the family, his mother died when he was young, and he was not close to his adoptive family. Poe’s lack of familial relationships with his father’s greatly affected his writing.

Edgar Allen Poe is most often recognized, and certainly most famous, for his poem “The Raven” as well as other decidedly dark and often gothic poems and stories, stories such as “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Telltale Heart” “The Cask of Amontillado.” He also wrote many others mostly involving rather macabre, dark topics and characters as well as heavy themes such as insanity, madness, incest, murder and revenge. While this reputation is certainly well earned there is another side of Poe that is not quite so obvious. Poe was also a master of humor, especially in the use of parody and satire. One might ask how is it that a writer with such an inclination towards the darker side of humanity can

Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and short stories reflect his psychological tension during tumultuous and estranged experiences. Major literary themes, centered around great loss and the search for eternal happiness, climax with pristine eloquence in all of his greatest works. Many of Poe’s prevalent portrayals of settings and characters remain unique in popular writings as a result of his own bizarre intimacies. Personal trials and struggles translated into fluent prose through Poe’s psyche, a signature attribute of his career, while some of his poetic foundations were borrowed from classical authors. Emotional travesty, from childhood displacement to the death of loved ones, played a comprehensive role in shaping Poe’s writings.

Edgar Allen Poe is known for writing incredible, but oftentimes disturbing poems that center around various themes and topics. His poem “Annabel Lee” discusses the affection he has for a particular woman and goes on to discuss certain events at the ocean where she inevitably dies. Poe changes the mood of the poem quite effectively as he begins by happily discussing his affection, and ending by describing the death of the woman he loves and expressing his sadness for her death. He is able to do this by using symbolism throughout the poem, in addition to alliteration and vivid imagery that appeals to his readers.

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the most prolific writers of all time. Known for his dark and atmospheric stories, he has influenced multiple writers of many genres and has had many famous of work that continues to be studied even today and will continue to be studied in the future. What makes Poe such an interesting writer and a write that continues to be studied even now? One of the things that are commonly seen in his pieces of work is the use of symbolism. His use of symbolism truly enhances his pieces of work and it is what makes his work relevant to be studied in modern times. The symbolism in his stories are a great discussion because when he leaves a lot of these questions unanswered in his story, it equates to a multiple amount of theories about why things are happening in the story and why Poe wanted to put it in the story. Symbolism can really give stories a deeper meaning and with his stories “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Masque of the Red Death” this holds true. Poe touches on many similar subjects involving death, murder, and haunting atmospheres.

In the history of literature, there have always been different themes and genres of writing. But few have been as different or unique as that of the “gothic” literature. Of all the gothic authors of history, few writing has captured the mind and plunged it into the depths of fear as that of Edgar Allen Poe. Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” is a story that shows us how deadly being prideful can be. Themes of dishonour, revenge and questionable justice all come together in this story. In this essay, I will discuss how the setting, irony and the lack of certain details all contribute to the gothic theme and the spine-tingling effect of the story.

Annabel Lee does a better job of showing Poe’s feelings of grief towards the death of his wife. “the angels, not half so happy in heaven, went envying her and me--“. Poe is trying to put the blame on someone for the death of his wife Annabel Lee. “That the wind came out of the cloud by night,