Edgar Allan Poe – Life and Works
Even up to this generation, we are familiar with the name Edgar Allan Poe. He was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. The master of suspense and horror, Edgar Allan Poe is known for his Gothic writing style. Based on his works, obviously, his style is created through his use of punctuation, sentence structure, word choice, tone, and figurative language.
However, one of his infamous works is not about suspense and gothic, this is a poem that talks about the beauty of a woman, entitled To Helen.
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicéan barks of yore,
That gently, o’er a perfumed 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 glory that was Greece,
And the grandeur that was Rome.
Lo! in yon brilliant window-niche
How statue-like I see thee stand,
The agate lamp within thy hand!
Ah, Psyche, from the regions which
Are Holy-Land!
The poem contradicts the themes he is known for. According to some sources, the beauty of a woman with whom Poe became acquainted when he was 14. Apparently, she treated him kindly and may have urged him–or perhaps inspired him–to write poetry. Beauty, as Poe uses the word in the poem, appears to refer to the soul of a woman as well as her body. Unlike his 1894 poem Anabelle Lee, even though it talks about love, the main theme of the poem is all about the death of a beautiful woman.
Another sad poem that Poe have written was The Raven. This also talks about losing someone who is very close to you. It’s all about love, sorrow, and despair.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” ― Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
The Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher are just two of the most popular suspense and gothic work he published. Those were all great stories, but according to the readers, there is one problem, they aren’t that scary. However, one thing is for sure, readers do love the works of Edgar Allan Poe simply because he could combine happiness and sorrow, love and hatred, beauty and death, and suspense and gothic.
