When you think of an autobiography, what most likely comes to mind is a memoir or journal format. An autobiography, however, doesn’t have to be presented in prose form; it can also be presented in the form of poetry. After all, literature, regardless of its form, is about the experience of being human, and the specific experiences about which a person writes are more often than not quite personal. Moreover, poetry and prose both relate stories, but only a poem relates the story in a highly condensed and concise form that might or might not rhyme or contain symbolism, analogies, personification, or other poetic devices.
As the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley said, “A poem is the very image of life expressed in eternal truth” (Seldes, 1989, p. 386). In other words, a poem, though often based upon personal feelings and experiences, has universal appeal because most readers can relate to those feelings and experiences. And when it comes to autobiographical works that are universally appealing because they tap into the collective experiences of humankind, one of the most notable poets of this genre is Edgar Allan Poe.
A Condensed Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
Still among the most popular American authors over 150 years after his death, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809. His father, David Poe, deserted his wife and young son, and Edgar’s mother, Elizabeth, died during an acting tour. Following his mother’s death, Edgar became the ward of the John Allan family, although he was never legally adopted. Unable to have children of her own, Mrs. Allan lavished affection on Edgar, while her often unfaithful husband, jealous of the child, showed little if any fondness for him and, in fact, was often indifferent and cold. (Perkins, et al, 1985)
Poe received a classical education at Stoke Newington, a preparatory school in London, when the family resided abroad from 1815 through 1820, and when the family returned to the States, he continued his education first at a local academy in Richmond, Virginia then the University of Virginia. Poe’s gambling debts, however, prompted Allan to remove his ward from the university, after which Poe, unwilling to join Allan in his exporting business, ran away to Boston where he published his first collection of poetry: Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827).
Following the collection’s publication, Poe enlisted in the army under the name “Edgar A. Perry,” obtaining the rank of Sergeant Major and an appointment to West Point. Poe, however, decided he was not suited to the academy’s rigid environment and intentionally provoked a dismissal for infraction of duty in the early spring of 1831. (Perkins, et al, 1985)
Subsequently moving to New York, Poe published a poetry collection titled Poems in 1831. He then moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Poe Clemm, where he intended to try to make a living as a writer but experienced only poverty and struggle until he achieved a measure of success following the publication of his first five short stories in 1833 by Philadelphia’s Saturday Courier and also won a fifty-dollar prize and publication in the Baltimore Saturday Visitor for his story “MS Found in a Bottle.” This story introduced the combination of pseudoscience and terror for which Poe later became famous. (Perkins, et al, 1985)
Following the success of his stories, Poe was offered the position of assistant editor at the Richmond Literary Messenger (1835-1837), and in September 1835 he secretly married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, who was only thirteen at the time but considered the love of Poe’s life. Apparently leaving the Messenger of his own accord, Poe then spent a few months in New York, after which he and Virginia moved to Philadelphia, where he experienced a period of great accomplishment as editor of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine (1939), Graham’s Magazine (1841-1842, and the Saturday Museum ( 1843). He also saw many of his short stories and poems published during this period and attained fame with the publication of “The Gold Bug,” which won a hundred-dollar prize from the Philadelphia publication Dollar Newspaper in 1843. (Perkins, et al, 1985)
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” as Autobiography
When Poe and Virginia moved back to New York in 1944, he entered a period of decline, finding only sporadic employment with the Evening Mirror and the Broadway Journal, and the couple lived in grueling poverty. These harsh living conditions but contributed to Poe’s increasing eccentric and erratic behavior, behavior that became even more unstable when he learned that Virginia was dying from tuberculosis.
It was in New York, though, that Poe penned what many critics consider his masterpiece, “The Raven,” a strongly autobiographical poem, which he wrote while Virginia was lying in the bedroom of their small, shabby apartment, the disease slowly ravaging her young body. In this poem, Poe deals with his questions concerning the likelihood of life after death and the possibility of his being reunited with the love of his life. The answer at which he arrives, of course, is “Nevermore.”
“Alone,” Poe’s Most Strongly Autobiographical Poem
On the other hand, Edgar Allan Poe’s most strongly autobiographical work is perhaps a poem titled “Alone,” which was one of his earlier works (1829). Although it never achieved the recognition of his later works, it nonetheless provides an accurate and moving self-portrait of the man known as both “father of the modern detective story” and “master of the macabre.” It also provides a glimpse into the complex and often tortured personality of a creative genius.
- 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 lov'd, I lov'd alone./Then–in my childhood–in the dawn/Of a most stormy life–was drawn/From ev'ry depth of good and ill/The mystery that binds me still:/From the torrent, or the fountain,/From the red cliff of the mountain,/From the sun that 'round me roll'd/In its autumn tint of gold–/From the lightning in the sky/As it pass'd 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.
In summary, how writers choose to tell the stories of their lives is a personal decision, and autobiographical writing can take several forms, including poetry. It is simply up to each writer to decide how best to express his or her own thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
Sources:
Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (1966) New York. Doubleday & Company. p. 812
Perkins, G., Bradley, S., Beatty, R.C. & Long, H. R. (1985) The American Tradition in Literature. New York: Random House
Seldes, G. (1989) The Great Thoughts. New York: Ballantine Books
Carol Rzadkiewicz - Carol Rzadkiewicz has taught college English for over 14 years and is the author of three published novels and numerous short stories.
