The Life and Times of Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809.

Poe’s Poems

• ““The Raven”The Raven”• ““Eldorado”Eldorado”• ““Annabel Lee”Annabel Lee”• ““The Bells”The Bells”• ““A Dream Within A A Dream Within A

Dream”Dream”• ““Lenore”Lenore”

A Dream Within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!And, in parting from you now,Thus much let me avow:That my days have been a dream;Yet if hope has flown awayIn a night, or in a day,In a vision, or in none,Is it therefore the less gone?All that we see or seemIs but a dream within a dream

Continued…

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand—

How few! yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep

While I weep—while I weep

O God! can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! can I not save

One from the pitiless wave

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

Poe’s Portrait

• This was how Poe was pictured as in an engraving by Thomas B. Welch and Adam B. Walter.

Interesting Facts About Poe

• Last night, with many cares and toils oppress'd Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest

• This was Poe’s first writing

• “No aspect of his life has so fascinated Poe's fans and detractors as his death. Unfortunately, there is also no greater example of how badly Poe's biography has been handled. Shrouded in opinion and contradiction, the essential details of Poe's final days leave us with more questions than answers. In the end we must accept that the few tantalizing facts we have lead to no certain conclusion. Poe's death must, probably, remain a mystery -- but the puzzle still teases and entices us. It is easy to find ourselves reviewing the stories again in hopes of finding something new, to settle the question once and for all.”

• The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore

More Interesting Facts About Poe

• “Most general accounts of Poe's appearance relate that he was a handsome man. Women in particular considered him good looking. His attractiveness was enhanced by his bearing, which seems to have been influenced by his brief military experience. A great number of comments focus on the expansive nature of his forehead, which was granted special significance.”

• The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimorephrenology, now dismissed as nonsense, was widely considered a reliable science.

To some, however Poe was a monster

A Sad Day For Mankind Indeed

On October 7, 1849 Poe died of rabies.

Sources

• www.poets.org

• www.eapoe.org