Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then-in my childhood, in the dawn

Of a most stormy life-was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,

From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,

From the lightning in the sky

As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

"Alone" is a 22-line poem, originally written in 1829 and left untitled and unpublished
during his lifetime. The original manuscript was signed "E. A. Poe" and dated March 17,
1829. In February of that year, Poe's foster mother Francis Allan had died. In September
1875, the poem, which had been in the possession of a family in Baltimore, was
published with its title in Scribner's Monthly. The editor, E. L. Didier, also reproduced a
facsimile of the manuscript, though he admitted he added the date himself. The poem is
now often included in anthologies.

"Alone" is often interpreted as autobiographical, expressing the author's feelings of

isolation and inner torment. Poet Daniel Hoffman believed "Alone" was evidence that
"Poe really was a haunted man. The poem, however, is an introspective about Poe's
youth, written when he was only 20 years old.
"From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen"
- From this he is saying that ever since he was young, he never fit in and his views were
completely different from his peers.

"As others saw; I could not bring

My passions from a common spring."
- From this, he is reiterating a bit, saying again that he was not like those around him; he
recognized his uniqueness at a young age. He is also saying that he saw things differently and the
same things that made others happy did not make him happy.

"From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone."
- He was referring to the death of his parents when he was very young and he could not share the
love he had with them.

"Then- in my childhood, in the dawn

Of a most stormy life- was drawn"
- These two lines referring to the life that he had, a very hard life starting from his childhood.

"From every depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still:"
- He is saying is that from both good and bad, he still was tormented by abandonment and
seclusion.

"From the torrent, or the fountain,

From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,"
- This connects to the line above it, when he says that in all the good and ill in his life, he still
manages to see the darkness.

"From the lightning in the sky

As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view. "
- Even though he is surrounded by all these natural occurrences in life, like the torrent, fountain,
sun, lightning, he still sees the darkness of life. And the last three lines are the ones that I find the
most interesting, and he’s saying that when he looks at his life, and even though the rest of
everything is blue (representing good), his view is still blocked by the bad.
*In another analysis the demon could represent his "foster" father.
Analysis of ‘Alone- Edgar Allan Poe’
Poe is saying 'I am different from other people, I am special, I am uniquely contrary in
my passions. I don't feel sorry about the things other people feel sorry about. I don't enjoy
the things other people enjoy. No one else loves the things I love.' He says he has been
like that from childhood. I take the title 'Alone' as referring to that self-image of
uniqueness. Certainly the word has overtones of solitude and loneliness, but the poem
isn't about those meanings. There's no hint in the poem that Poe regrets being different, or
is fearful, or wants to avoid the company of others. After the first eight lines the poem
becomes more unclear and goes off track for a bit. Unlike some poets, Poe sticks to
grammar. In the grammar of this poem, the climactic line is 'The mystery that binds me
still'. The following lines do little to explain what that mystery is. They provide a list of
superficial, poor, visual images of natural phenomena 'from' which the mystery is said to
have been 'drawn'. The only helpful detail in them is the closing mention of seeing a
cloud that looked to him like a demon, even though it was blue sky weather. Being an
instance of seeing something memorably deathlike in a thing ordinarily regarded as
momentary and of no importance, I read that as an attempt to return the poem to the track
on which it started. As a result, what Poe is saying in his own way is that his distinction
of taste, and his fascination for the dark side of things, is a mystery to him, but is
something he has always lived with and always will. And he is convinced he is the only
person who is like that.
This is a reflection of the poem that u may use it as a guidance to understand it…

This is a story that is about someone who simply doesn't have the same interests as other
people. He is therefore alone, unable to connect with people about his passions. And
while he may still care for people it is simply hard to connect to someone who doesn't
have any passions that match up with his. I can completely relate to this feeling as I have
known many people who are perfectly nice people but no matter how hard I try to
connect to them they simply don't care about what I do and they don't care about what I
do.

The internet I suppose has helped to fill the gap in this human need for connection of
passions and so it is more difficult to feel completely this way. At least you know that
there is someone with those same passions even if they are not someone you know
personally.

The second half of the poem is a bit harder for me. Though I can still relate to the
mystery of the universe my passions don't match up completely with the authors either.

That feeling of being on the outside looking in is something that I suspect everyone has
felt at some time, whether it is the person who hides who they are because they don't
know how others will react or the person who doesn't hide who they are and so spends
much of his time alone, but the truth is that I for one wouldn't change the feeling I have
had in the past of being an outsider. I would not want to be part of the crowd even if I
knew how to be because often the crowd doesn't see the mystery.

As someone who doesn't often read poetry it is a real pleasure when I do find something
that speaks to me and it is not surprising I suppose that it is Edgar Allan Poe, as I enjoy
so much of his work.