Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven And The Tell-Tale Heart
Edgar Allan Poe is a writer known for pioneering a myriad of literary themes: darkness, death, horror, murder, insanity, revenge, and torture, to name a few. Poe’s stories “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” are chilling tales that represent the best of the best in the world of horror. However, beneath this man’s shell of hair-raising poetry and homicide-themed short stories, there lies a glimmer of light.“To Helen”(poetryoutloud.org) is a love poem created in honor of a childhood friend’s mother, written by Poe at the tender age of 22. It attracted me due to the poem’s significant deviation from Edgar Allen Poe’s traditional macabre tales and the allusions to classical Greek mythology.”To Helen” is an abrupt shift from Poe’s gothic style,
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Who is this mythical woman which Edgar Allen Poe is head over heels for? According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, “To Helen” was not written to “Helen”, but in honor of Jane Stanard. Stanard was the mother of Poe’s friend and classmate, Robert Stanard, and her beauty and charm caused Poe to fall in love. This struck me as a surprising turn of events, considering most teenage boys don’t become enamored with their friend’s mom. In fact, when I presented a multiple-choice question to my advisory class asking who the poem was meant for, only 20% of the students assumed it was written for his childhood friend’s mother. Although Poe’s taste in women might be abnormal, he was absolutely infatuated with Stanard. Sadly, a recurring theme in Poe’s poetry and his life as well is death, and this story is not an exception. Jane fell ill and died on April 28th, 1824. Her passing left a mark on Edgar’s conscious which eventually took form as the love poem “To Helen.” The vivid depictions of Helen’s beauty and the allusions to ancient Greece serve as a testament to the feeling our writer felt for
Who is this mythical woman which Edgar Allen Poe is head over heels for? According to the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore, “To Helen” was not written to “Helen”, but in honor of Jane Stanard. Stanard was the mother of Poe’s friend and classmate, Robert Stanard, and her beauty and charm caused Poe to fall in love. This struck me as a surprising turn of events, considering most teenage boys don’t become enamored with their friend’s mom. In fact, when I presented a multiple-choice question to my advisory class asking who the poem was meant for, only 20% of the students assumed it was written for his childhood friend’s mother. Although Poe’s taste in women might be abnormal, he was absolutely infatuated with Stanard. Sadly, a recurring theme in Poe’s poetry and his life as well is death, and this story is not an exception. Jane fell ill and died on April 28th, 1824. Her passing left a mark on Edgar’s conscious which eventually took form as the love poem “To Helen.” The vivid depictions of Helen’s beauty and the allusions to ancient Greece serve as a testament to the feeling our writer felt for