The Poems of Edgar Allen Poe

5b Edgar Allen Poe. Illustrations by W. Heath Robinson. London: George Bell & Sons, 1900. Notes Edgar Allan Poe’s poetry is renowned for its musicality, melancholy, and exploration of beauty, death, and the supernatural. His verse often blends haunting rhythm with emotional intensity, creating an atmosphere of mystery and longing. Works like “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Bells,” and “Lenore” capture his fascination with lost love, mortality, and the human psyche’s darker depths. Poe’s use of repetition, alliteration, and sound devices was groundbreaking, giving his poems a lyrical, almost hypnotic quality. His poetic philosophy—especially as expressed in his essay “The Philosophy of Composition”—centered on the idea that poetry should evoke beauty and emotion rather than convey moral lessons, making his work a cornerstone of American Romanticism and Gothic literature. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic, celebrated as a master of