Poe was orphaned at a very young age. His mother died at the young age of twenty-one and his father disappeared from his life soon after, Poe was only two. He was given to the care of John and Francis Allen in Baltimore. Poe was a bright and very intelligent young boy who impressed his teachers and made John Allen a proud foster father. He went to school in Richmond where he received praises from his master. His parents spoiled him and this is what supposedly ruined him. His parents allowed him to carry extravagant amounts of money, which enabled him to get into all manner of mischief, according to his masters.

Poe's writings and works are as strange as he is. His work reflected almost directly at his eerie personality as in his poem Annabel Lee, dedicated to his dead wife, Virginia. Poe has regarded himself as a poet throughout his life. He has written poetry ever since he was a teenager. As a teenager, he wrote "Temerlane" and "Al Aaraaf" which were remarkable for his age. These poems contained deep thoughts and amazing imagery not possessed by teenage poets during that period of time. His poetry most often reflected loneliness and fear. In "The Raven", he wrote of a lonely man mourning the lost of his beloved "Lenore" and is haunted by creepy raven who symbolizes Lenore's ghost. The thumpish rhymes to this poem give it a somewhat nightmarish affect by showing the narrators fear and pain. The thumpish rhymes symbolizes the beating heart of narrator, giving the reader a creepy feeling, like when they can hear their own heartbeat when they feel fear.

Like all matters in his life, Poe's marriage with Virginia ended in tragedy. On January 30, 1847, Virginia Poe dies of tuberculosis. Everything in his life has now become a tragedy. Every woman he had ever loved has died. He found comfort in only alcohol. It was safe to say that Poe was an alcoholic. He had made promises to stay away from alcohol, but like his father, David Poe, and his oldest brother, Henry Poe, he was not able to. There is record that when Poe was drunk, he would do and say unusual, and usually things. Once he paraded around a friend's house naked in front the friend's mother. He sent his deep regrets to his friend the day after.

Poe was a very good cadet at West Point. He impressed other cadets with his ability to make up rhymes poetry and his mysterious ways. His days at West Point were short, however. John Allan would not send money for his intuition and board at West Point. John Allan assumed that his financial duties with Poe had ended when Poe entered West Point. He refused to pay any expenses at West Point and Poe had to resign. It was the University of Virginia all over again. He deliberately skipped class and neglected his duties. Poe left West Point before his court-martial.

Poe had trouble finding a living in Boston and, therefore, enlisted into the Army under the name of Edgar Allan Perry. He was immediately assigned to an artillery unit in Boston Harbor. Si

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Approximate Word count = 1607
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)