Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was a 19th century American poet, author, and critic. Poe is often described as a rebel against society and art-for-art's sake supporter who experimented in making his poems without didacticism and devoid of any meaning, but he is also respected as a genius in terms of his commitment to art and his ability to experiment with various forms of expressions (Fromm 304). In my opinion, Poe was not a rebel because he remained true to himself. Although he was influenced by traditional artists, he adapted this tradition to his personal being. Although he might have been perceived as a rebel against society because of his innovative views on the world, human beings, and poetry, I believe his work remains popular and influential today because he remained true to his style and personality. However, I agree that he was dedicated to art for art's sake because his main intention was to express himself through his work. Poe did not bother with popular styles and techniques, but he w as a master poet when it comes to adapting to different styles to convey his emotions appropriately. Overall, Poe's poetry displays sentimentalism because he puts all emphasis on emotions and no emphasis on logic, but it is not limited to optimism because he displays both positive and negative emotions, and he displays them often together using both extremes in a single poem. According to Poe's values, the only productive thinkers were both educated and imaginative, and he described poets as people who do not understand the mechanics behind the Universe's laws, but they can obtain these principles intuition (Osipova 25). Poe wrote his poetry according to his beliefs, and every poem he wrote was a reflection on his intuition's insights and his state o... ...riences in form of divine beauty, I believe the main limitation was his experiences through intuition because translating intuition into intellect cannot be complete. However, his sentimentalism and the ability to display the same situations and points from completely opposite emotional contexts remains one of his best qualities as a poet. It is still difficult to say if Poe was influenced by his emotions completely, or if his emotions were out of control, or if he could observe all experiences objectively. My personal impression is that Poe was an objective observer who could view the same object, person, situation, or experience from several viewpoints and express his impressions and insights through poetry. Although his alcoholism points out emotional difficulties in life, when it comes to poetry, Poe could completely control and express all emotions objectively.