Edgar Allen Poe Reflection

I read the poem "Alone" by Edgar Allen Poe. When I read this poem at first, I really didn't realize what was going on. I kind of just read through it just to get an idea from it. Then I read through it a second time and I realized what was really going on. Now I realize why we read through them a couple times in class just so we could get it more smoothly. From my point of view, it seemed like ,at least in the first four lines, he talked about his childhood. Throughout those first four lines he says that, "As other's were: I have not seen As other's saw: I could not bring My passions from a common spring" (Poe Lines 2-4). In this quote he talks about how he was not like the other children. How he did not find the happiness that other children had seen. His passions did not come out the same ways as the other children's passions did (Lines 1-4). This kind of shows or portrays the dark romanticism period because it shows that every man has a true deep side inside of him. Another quote is "My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone" (Poe Lines 6 and 7), this resembles the dark romanticism period because it kind of gets you into that tragedy mind set. What I mean by this is that when he is stating about his sorrow and how he could not awaken his heart to joy (Lines 6 and 7), it kind of makes you sad and feel bad for him. He could not get his heart up to the same level as he was sad. Another important quote in this poem was "And all I loved, I loved alone" (Poe Line 8), this is such an important quote because it gives you a sense that he was lonely and he enjoyed all the things that happened in his life alone. Which could be one of the reasons why this poem is called "Alone". That quote also could make him confused about his life and what goes on around it. Which brings me into another quote from the story, "Then-- in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life-- was drawn From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still" (Poe Lines 9-12). This quote shows that his life was a mystery and had so many question marks around it that he could not of even answered. Mystery is a good characteristic of the Dark Romanticism period and Edgar Allen Poe shows a great characteristic in his poem. The last quote I am going to put into this is the last part of this poem is "From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold" (Lines 15 and 16), this almost brings a sense of happiness to the poem which this comes at the end of the poem. In this poem it shows a great deal of characteristics that came from the dark romanticism period and Poe does a good job with combining the main points of the Dark Romanticism period into his poem.

Bibliography

Poe, Edgar Allen. "Alone." The Edgar Allen Poe Society of Baltimore. LFC Hosting. 5 Aug. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.