Beginning of Essay
Edgar Allan Poe lived a hard life, which is reflected in his poetry. Its dark and gloomy settings along with often depressing topics mirror his difficult times. "The Raven" shows his feelings of loss when his wife, Virginia, died from an illness. Many of his po ....

Middle of Essay
.... He was at a school in Richmond, Va. where, compared to the other boys, he was genetically lower class. It did not matter that he had more mental or physical prowess than them, he simply did not have the genealogy and they reminded him of it often. The first poetry he had released came shortly after this time. It was in no way concerned with his alma mater, it was more concerned with happiness lost and how the his life was miserable due to a rude awakening. His poem "Tamerlane" tells how ambition for youthful dreams killed love. In "The Lake", Poe hints of suicide as an escape from earthly worries. Poe did all of this before he had fully ent ....