Alone

by Edgar Allan Poe

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were -- I have not seen

As others saw -- I could not bring

My passions from a common spring --

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow -- I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone --

And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone --

Then -- in my childhood -- in the dawn

Of a most stormy life -- was drawn

From ev'ry depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still --

From the torrent, or the fountain --

From the red cliff of the mountain --

From the sun that 'round me roll'd

In its autumn tint of gold --

From the lightning in the sky

As it pass'd me flying by --

From the thunder, and the storm --

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view –

Analysis of the poem

   Alone is an autobiographical poem written by Edgar Allan Poe and published in 1875. This poem expresses his feelings of depression and mixed with the vague sense of betrayal that causes the death of someone dear to the author. The past tense is the verbal tense present in this poem. In a way, Poe’s poems show a particularly troubled period, in the life of the young Edgar Allan Poe, who was only twenty years old when he composed it.

  The poet shows us, in these verses, his vision of the reality, which is dark and how a very young boy is aware that these kinds of thoughts will follow him along his life path and will be elementary essential in his literary productions. In addition, it gives us indications that he, not the others, deals with young people and his vision of what surrounds them. This vision is something that he does not share with the others. It seems because, surely, his friends and colleagues do not understand or accept him. This poem shows us a writer, an artist who finds inspiration in the darkest part of the human condition. This is something, which others would consider negative and however, it is the same for the poet or even greater, in beauty images and more idealized. In the first part of the poem, “I have not been; As others were -- I have not seen; As others saw”, the author is talking about his personality, the difference between him and the other children and also about what he has experienced in his life until that moment, all the things that happened in front of his eyes. The line, “And all I lov'd -- I lov'd alone”, is specifically about the things he liked to do and what used to call his attention. When he says “[…] in the dawn; Of a most stormy life” and “good and ill”, he links the past and present; we can translate this as the beginning of a problematic life with good moments and also the presence of health problems. As we know, Poe’s mother and his wife died of the same disease and he surely wondered why these coincidences happened. In the last part of the poem, he uses elements of the nature to describe the moments when he was used to reflect about his life and that he is haunted by his thoughts. He wrote: “And the cloud that took the form; (When the rest of Heaven was blue); Of a demon in my view”, to exemplify that even when everything seemed to be fine, he was worried about the same problems, there was always something bothering him and making his life the worst possible.

Analyzing these figures of speech, we can notice that Edgar Allan Poe had great ability in summarizing complex ideas into simple words with all his feelings and show us that the mood of the poems he wrote was strongly influenced by the events in his life. Certainly, this piece of his work is essential for the ones who wants to be acquainted with Poe’s mind and his work.

By Gabrielle and Douglas