Edgar Allan Poe "I am gone mad, with long intervals of sanity." -Edgar Allan Poe (BrainyQuote)Edgar Allan Poe has become a household name since his poetic debut "The Raven," his most famous poem. However, many are unaware of his disturbing past and the emotional disturbances he was forced to deal with time and time again throughout his life. From the death of his parents to his adoptive father's rejection, it seemed like the aspiring Poe could never catch a break. It was Poe's dark and disturbing past that influenced the tone of his works making it very disturbing. Edgar Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1809. He was the second son of traveling actors Elizabeth and David Poe Jr. When Poe was just a year old, his father abandoned the family and is said to have died shortly thereafter. About a year later, Poe's mother, Elizabeth, died of pulmonary tuberculosis, leaving Poe and his siblings orphans. Poe was separated from his brothers and taken in by a successful tobacco merchant named John Allan and his wife, giving him the name Edgar Allan Poe. The Allan family never formally adopted Poe. Poe had almost no interest in the tobacco business and often wrote lines of poetry on the back of Allan's ledger sheets. By the age of 13 he had written enough poetry to write a book. However, his principal advised him not to do so. Poe moved many times with his new "father" and his family and attended a harsh boarding school in London. The family returned to the United States and settled in Richmond, Virginia. The young Poe met Elmira Royster and they soon became engaged. Shortly after... half of the paper... of hope and salvation of the main character. Edgar Allan Poe's writing style is very dark, mysterious and disturbing. Death seems to be a recurring theme, along with visits to the afterlife. His hypnotic and disturbing rhymes have become his trademark. He played and mastered suspense, terror and the awakening of nightmarish visions of death and tragedy. Although many of his works have no obvious subject and are open to interpretation, it is easy to say that he drew inspiration from all the losses and tragedies that governed his life. For example, the death of his mother, the abandonment of his father, the rejection by his boyfriend, the repudiation of his adoptive father, the diagnosis and death of his wife, the chronic problems with alcohol and the constant feeling of loss and rejection were all evident in all of his poems. Although Poe had a sad life going through many losses,