Kathleen McGuff

February 17, 2016

5 Paragraph Poe Final Paper
But tomorrow I die, and today I would uburthen my soul (The
Black Cat). Throughout out Edgar Allan Poes life, he had many losses.
His mother, foster mother and first wife all died from the same illness,
Turburcolois. Both his father and foster father left him, and he had
money trouble all before the age of thirty. In addition to all of this, he
had problems with women, illnesses, and an unreliable narrator. He
includes all of these problems in many of his short stories and poems.
The most important women in his life died. They were all
beautiful women and they all died from Tuberculosis. Every woman
that had ever been in his life was beautiful and they all died from TB:
the death of a beautiful woman, is unquestionably the most poetical
topic in the world (The Philosohy of Composition). The death of a
beautiful woman is referring to all the beautiful women he has lost in
his life including his mother, foster mother and first wife. Losing
someone can be very hard. Some people think about their love ones,
Deep in earth my love is lying and I must weep alone (Deep in
Earth). Poe is thinking about his love ones that have died in his
writings. Deep in earth means being buried and My love is lying means
his love one is lying in their grave and Poe has to sit and cry alone. By

writing this way, he is trying to keep this wife alive because he misses
her. Poe never gets over the lost of his wife.
Next, every man in his life left him or did not want him. With all
of the lost in Poes life created, boundaries which divide life from
Death are at best shadowy and vague who shall say where one ends,
and where the other begin? (The Premature Burial). Poe had to have
boundaries in his life because of money trouble and people walking out
on him, and not helping him when he lost his love ones. Poe also had
financial trouble. He had to drop out of school because he could not
afford it. His foster father would not adopt him or help him pay for
college. He could have helped him but he never wanted to. A
boundary with losing people was that everyone that he ever loved left
him. Since he lost so many people, Poe had very dark and lonely times,
From a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange
impending doom(Works). Poes words make us understand how hurt
he was after everything that happened to him.
Poe also had trouble with having a believable narrator in his
writing. His writings gave us insight into his mind I became insane,
with long intervaes of horrible sanity (Heureka). Poe started to lose his
sanity as life went on and he became lonelier and missed so many
people. This affected Poe mentally because he has no one to talk to or
that cared about him. Poe felt like he was alone and the world was
scary and dark, Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there,

wondering fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to

dream before.(The Raven). When feeling crazy you start to lose
what is right and what is wrong in life. You worry too much; ask why am
I living and wish that there was light again. These are all the things
that Poe was thinking after everyone in his life had died. He connects
this to his writing by writing the way he does and picking the topics
that he writes about.
Because of the life Poe lived, losing every woman he ever loved
to TB and having to deal with his dad and his foster dad, he lost his
mind at times. Poe writes great stories but think about what he is
writing it is super sad. Poe made me remember that no matter what
happens in life I can always get through things and make what is left of
life great.