Personal Review Of Edgar Allan Poe’s Alone

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Edgar Allan Poe, a prominent American writer and poet, composed “Alone”, which is one of his most divulging works. The first lines, “From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring” are very revealing to the speaker’s childhood. The speaker believes his childhood was very different than others. After establishing his difference from other childhoods, the speaker reveals their emotional differences from other people. The line confirming his dissimilarity to others is “And all I loved, I loved alone” because it can be interpreted as loving certain things alone or loving anything alone. Meaning, he was the only one loving something other people would find strange, or insignificant, which highly reflects Poe’s writing style. Up to this point in the poem the speaker has shared his distinct emotions, which makes him feel alone.

Halfway through the poem, there is a shift in feeling. The speaker opens line nine with “Then- in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life- was drawn,” which gives hope to the reader with its clever wording. The use of “dawn” makes the reader feel like they’re waking up on a nice morning, but then the speaker describes his “dawn,” or birth, as a “stormy life,” which then makes the reader as if they were waking up to a terrible storm. The use of this metaphor makes the reader feel the pain of the speaker’s life from start to finish. The speaker, after acknowledging his awful life, begins to question “the mystery that binds [him] still,” which is why his life is so dreadful. In the next few lines the speaker explains the mystery of his life is in “the torrent, or the fountain, from the red cliff of the mountain,” this means the mystery is everywhere. The speaker is using the powerful states of Earth to explain the importance of his mystery. The poem closes with a powerful comparison. The speaker states, “When the rest of Heaven was blue Of a demon in my view” which is the speaker calling himself a demon, while everyone else is living great in heaven. Using this dramatic metaphor to end the poem is extremely effective in making the reader feel the speaker’s thoughts.

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American author and poet, Edgar Allan Poe, wrote his revealing work titled “Alone,” a poem about the questioning of his difference in emotions and childhood from other people. The poem clearly reflects Edgar Allan Poe’s life and the tragedy it was and gives the reader an in-depth feel for his differences. The beginning of the poem explicitly states his unique feelings to the rest of the world. Halfway through the poem, the speaker begins to explain the mystery of his terrible life and how he can’t escape from it. The way the speaker explains the mystery existing in so many forms of the earth is extraordinary, it makes the reader feel how impactful the mystery is. At the end of the poem, the speaker compares himself to a demon, while everyone with normal lives and emotions is joyous in heaven. This metaphor fits into the poem perfectly and fits Poe’s writing beautifully. Overall, this poem is a fantastic piece of literature and deserves more recognition because of its skilled use of metaphors and imagery.

Work Cited

  1. Shmoop Editorial Team. “Alone (Poe): Lines 1-22 Summary.” Shmoop, Shmoop University, 11 Nov. 2008, www.shmoop.com/alone-poe/lines-9-12-summary.html.

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