”Nameless here forevermore” : A study of the expression of sorrow, in the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe

Abstract: Despite being one of the most influential writers of his era, Edgar Allan Poe led a mostly tragic life of impoverishment and personal failures and tragedies. This essay explores to what extent this affected Poe’s writing, by examining the portrayals of the emotions of grief and sorrow in some of Poe’s work, via close-reading. Further, the essay contains a shorter biographical analysis of Poe’s life and work, in order to establish a connection between the two. The meaning of the emotions of grief and sorrow within Poe’s works are discussed, and connected to Poe’s biography. The results show that Poe’s works are sometimes converging with tragedies from his own life, his personal tragedies and his stories featuring death, grief and sorrow converge on several occasions throughout his intense career.