“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality.” This quote was written by the great Edgar Allen Poe. He was born January 19th, 1809, and died October 7th, 1849. Poe’s parents were both actors. His father abandoned his family when Poe was just a child and his mother died while acting. Poe was placed in a foster home and later was adopted by John Allan. While growing up in a rich family, Poe accumulated many gambling debts, and that made his stepfather stop Poe’s second year of study by not paying for his education. Being very unhappy at home, Poe moved to Baltimore with his aunt. Unfortunately, his stepfather died, so Poe was hoping to get some kind of financial help from him, but he was very upset because his stepfather didn’t leave him anything. That was the reason Poe started writing his poems and stories. Poe became very well-known at the time but he still lived in poverty. Not long after becoming popular, he married his cousin. Then received a job as co-editor at Gentlemen’s Magazine but wasn’t able to keep it for long because he had a drinking problem. Shortly afterward, Poe moved his family to New York where he started publishing more poems and stories. This was finally a good year for him due to his always living in poverty. Years pass by and Poe dies. Many believe that Poe died from heavy drinking. However, an autopsy was performed and it turns out Poe died from rabies.
In his lifetime, Poe influenced many people around him. He was very talented in poetry, fiction, and criticism, setting standards in all three that set him apart from other American writers. In his fiction, he is known for inventing detective stories, beginning the modern genre of scientific fiction, and turning the conventions of gothic fiction to the uses of high art in stories such as The Fall of the House of Usher (Mambrol). He was also a very talented humorist. He produced a body of work that was respected throughout the whole world. He also wrote some classical, like The Raven, as well as a few poems that, in part because of their sheer verbal beauty, have persistently appealed to the popular imagination, such as The Bells and Annabel Lee (Mambrol). In criticism, Poe is one of the first to demonstrate methods of textual criticism that came into their own. He took the correctness of language and structure very seriously. Poe put together rules for the short story, in which he sought the ancient unities: the short story should link a complete action and take place within one day in one place (Ollive). He was not extreme in these views, however. He praised longer works and sometimes thought allegories and morals admirable. Poe admired originality. In his essay The Philosophy of Composition, he analyzed with astonishing objectivity the process by which The Raven was created to produce a specified result in its readers (Mambrol).
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Poe’s influence on culture was widespread. Almost every American writer was influenced by him especially when working in a gothic mode. He was capable of writing amazing poetry, with a complete sense of rhythm and word appeal, or prose of splendid beauty and suggestiveness, with the apparent abandon of compelling inspiration; yet he would write down a problem of morbid psychology or the outlines of an unrelenting plot in a hard. Poe was the one who created the idea of horror and he expanded this genre. (Zappia).
The Fall of the House of Usher was a horror story created by Edgar Allen Poe which was published in Burtons Gentlemen’s Magazine in 1839. Poe had an inspiration from E.T.A Hoffman, who was his biggest idol. In this story, the narrator’s friend from a long time ago was sick and the narrator decided to visit him. The house looked very old and creepy. One of the siblings, Madelyn ends up dying and is buried under the house. A week later, a big storm settled in and the narrator was lying down in fear he couldn’t understand where it was coming from. Rodrick who is his friend, enters a state of hysteria. Out of nowhere, objects in the room had an unnatural glow. The door opened and the girl who died, Madelyn, stood there in her bloody robe. As she cried out to her brother, she pulled him down on the floor and they both died. The narrator escaped the house and when he looked back, he saw a lake swallowing the house. This masterpiece shows Poe’s ability to create an emotional tone, specifically fear.
Another piece that Poe wrote was The Raven. It was one of many famous poems in history. Raven was published in 1845, it was inspired by the pet raven that Charles Dickens owned (Turner). The theme of this piece includes death and the afterlife. Poe is well known for writing stories and poems about these kinds of themes that come along with losses and memories. By reading his works, readers get this feeling that something bad is about to happen, a feeling of thrill. This poem is about a person who is traumatized by the death of his loved one. A raven was tapping on his window and knowing that the raven could speak, he asked questions about his loved one, but all the raven said was “nevermore.” That made the narrator very mad, and his feelings of loneliness continued to persist.
“Hear the sleds with the bells—Silver bells! What a world of merriment their melody foretells! How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, In the icy air of night!” Edgar Allen Poe lived in New York City for a while, he lived somewhat close to Fordham University. He could see the bells from his window. Some people have a strong belief that Poe got most of his inspiration from the campus of the University. There is a writing on the exterior of the University Church that says, “The bell in the tower, known since as Old Edgar Allan, is said to have inspired Poe, a friend, and neighbor, to write his celebrated poem, ‘The Bell's” (Burger). According to the Fordham Ram, the campus provided Poe with much-needed companionship (Burger). According to some stories, Poe was walking through the street when he heard the bells. So, he went inside the church and the priest explained to him that when the bells ring, it's time for a prayer. Poe was so excited about it, he went home and started writing. In his writing, he talked about four different states of bells. The first type of bell that Poe wrote about was the jingling Christmas bell which brings a joyful mood. The wedding bells are the happy bells but it’s a different kind of happiness. These kinds of bells bring a feeling of the future. Then Poe describes the alarm bells that ring during a fire or trouble. He then states that there are also bells for people who are sick because the bells sound like they are moaning from pain.
In conclusion, Edgar Allan Poe influenced everyone around him, by all the ways he would create his poems and stories. Poe’s work influenced French and Russian writers like Dostoyevsky, who wrote Crime and Punishment. Writers like Stephen King, who wrote horror stories and poems, got their inspiration from Poe. He brought a style of gothic writing and used the concept of terror to bring fear to his readers. First, all his tales and poems starting from The Fall of the House of Usher show Poe’s ability to produce an emotional tone in his work. Next, The Raven poem shows that grieving for someone cannot be compressed. Finally, “The Bells” is about four different states that a bell signifies. All these have one thing in common: an amazingly skilled writer. Indeed, even after his passing, Poe continues to inspire everyone through his works of literature.
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