Edgar Allan Poe was an American romantic writer and poet. His romanticism was related to dark themes, being well known for his works of mystery and horror.
Owner of a restless spirit, Poe was considered the creator of the detective genre and also a great contributor to the science fiction genre. Currently, he is seen as one of the greatest icons in world literature.
Biography
Edgar Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, United States. As a child, he had a life full of setbacks.
His father abandoned his family and soon after, his mother died of tuberculosis. With this, Poe was raised by the wealthy merchant couple Francis and John Allan. Hence his other surname: Allan.
During this period he had a good education, attending good schools and having great teachers. He also studied in England for a while.
He entered the University of Virginia, however, dropped out of school. At that time he was involved with several women. Besides, he started to have a very bohemian life.
From an early age he had a great interest in literature and with the university he started taking literature and language classes. As early as 1827 he published his first book of poetry “
Tomerlane and Other Poems”.Shortly after leaving University, Edgar enlisted in the military at West Point Academy. However, he was expelled for indiscipline. He had an argument with his adoptive father, which led to his allowance being cut.
This prompted Poe to start working as a magazine editor. From editor, he becomes the magazine's director, an essential vehicle he used to publicize his writings. In it he published short stories, literary reviews, poems and essays.
He then moves in with a widowed aunt and her cousin Virginia Clemm. He marries Virginia in 1836, who was only 13 at the time.
Involved in bohemian life, Poe was fired from his post at the magazine and shortly afterward his wife falls ill and dies. Faced with these events, Poe loses himself even more in alcohol consumption.
Edgar Allan Poe died on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore, United States.
To date, his cause of death has not been clarified. Some scholars indicate that he may have been the victim of some illnesses or even alcoholism.
Main Works
Owner of a unique and innovative style for the time, Edgar Allan Poe produced several works of short stories and poetry, including:
Tales
- Bernice (1835)
- The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841)
- The Black Cat (1843)
- The Devil of Perversity (1845)
- The Barrel of Amontillado (1846)
Poetry
- Tamerlane (1827)
- The Winning Worm (1837)
- Silence (1840)
- The Raven (1845)
- A Dream Within a Dream (1849)
Excerpts from the Works
Of Edgar's tales the most famous is without a doubt "The black Cat”. In poetry, it deserves to be highlighted “The crow”.
The black Cat
"I married young and was fortunate to find in my wife a disposition of mind that was not contrary to mine. Seeing my taste for domestic animals, I never missed the opportunity to provide me with some of the most pleasant species. We had birds, goldfish, a beautiful dog, rabbits, a little monkey, and a cat.
The latter was a remarkably strong and beautiful animal, completely black and exceptionally smart. When we were talking about his intelligence, my wife, who was not at all impervious to superstition, she often alluded to the popular belief that all black cats are witches in disguise. I don't mean to say that I was always serious about this subject, and if I am referring to this now, it is not for any particular reason, but just because it came to me.
Pluto, the cat was called, was my favorite friend and playmate. Only I fed him and followed me everywhere, inside the house. It was even with difficulty that I managed to prevent him from following me on the street.
(...) One night, when I was returning home, completely intoxicated, on my way back from one of the town's tugs, it seemed to me that the cat avoided my presence. I caught him, and he, horrified by the violence of my gesture, slightly wounded my hand with his teeth. A fury of demons immediately seized me. He didn't recognize me. It would seem that my original soul had eroded from my body in an instant and a more than demonic badness, saturated with gin, made every fiber of my body shudder. I took a pocketknife from my waistcoat pocket, opened it, grabbed the poor animal by the neck and deliberately plucked one eye out of its socket! Shame burns me and I shudder as I write this heinous atrocity."
The crow
“Bird or devil you black!
Prophet, or whatever you are!
Stop, oh, stop! I cried, rising, cease!
Back to time, back
In your night, leave me with me.
Go, don't stay in my chaste shelter
Feather that remembers that lie of yours.
Take those fatal ones to my chest
Claws that open my already raw pain."
And the crow said, "Never again".
And the crow stays there; hey he fucked
In white carved marble
From the old Palas; he is immutable, ferocious.
It seems, seeing the hard frown,
A demon dreaming. the fallen light
From the lamp over the bored bird
The sad shadow spreads on the ground; and out
from those funeral lines
That float on the ground, my soul that cries
Don't come out anymore, never, never again!
Read too: Gothic Prose.
Phrases by Edgar Allan Poe
- “Perversity is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart.”
- “Happiness is not in science, but in the acquisition of science.”
- “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
- “When a madman seems completely lucid, it's time to put the straitjacket on him..”
- “Everything we see or look like is just a dream within a dream.”
- “Science has yet to prove to us whether madness is the most sublime of intelligence or not.”
