While Poe is most often known for his short fiction, his first love as a writer was poetry. he started writing in his adolescent years. His early writings were all influenced by Lord Byron, John Keats, and Pyrce Bysshe Shelly. Poe learned about plant and animal classification on an oceanfront off of Sullivans Island, under the influence of Dr. Raveral, a naturalist. Colonel Brayton, a politician, led him to modern literature.
After spending seven weeks in Boston, Poe enlisted in the United States Army under the name Edgar A. Perry. He was a young man of only eighteen, but he claimed to be twenty-two years old. His education and his obvious intelligence made him stand out from the other men, and he soon won special privileges. He moved up in rank by the age of twenty to Sgt. Major. Yet, Poe always found more and more time to write.
Both Poe's father and mother were professional actors who, at the time of his birth, were members of a repertory company in Boston. By the time he was three, both his mother and father had died. He was raised by John Allen, who never really adopted his foster son. some say Poe got his passion for writing from his deceased parents' love for acting.
Poe was not just a poet, he did many things in his life. He was a poet, novelist, critic, short story writer, and Southern Literary Messenger staff member in Richmond, Va. from 1835-36. He was also assistant editor of Burlington's Gentleman's' Magazine from 1836-37; Literary editor of the Evening Mirror from 1841-42, and editor and owner of the Broadway Journal from 1845-46.
The Raven is a very famous piece of Poe's works. He spoke mostly of death in all of his poetry. In this poem he uses a lot of repetition. If you'd like, you can click here to listen to the final stanza of The Raven as read by James Earl Jones for the animated TV series The Simpsons. This is a large sound file and will take a few moments to download and play.
While Poe's poetic works were not recognized and very popular while he was alive, he did receive well-deserved respect for his work as a gifted fictional writer. Later, after the publication of The Raven, he did receive a measure of popular success.
After his death, the history of his critical reception became one of many judgements and interpretations by scholars, writers, critics, and readers. It was not until 1941, when a biography of Poe was published by A.H. Quinn, that a balanced view of Poe and the relationship between the author's life and his imagination was presented.
Today, Poe is recognized as one of the foremost progenitors of modern literature, both in it's popular forms, such as horror and detective stories, and in it's more complex and personal forms. Some say Poe's poetry came from his heart of darkness.
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