Edgar Allan Poe was one of the best poets of the Victorian age. Other than his poem ‘To Helen’, ‘Alone’ is also one of the famous poems of him.
The poem was published after his death in 1875 and at that time this poem took the attention of the readers. The title of the poem says about a mental state where the poet is addressing the ‘loneliness’.
Theme of Alone
The religious aspect is being used in the poem when Poe tells he saw an image of a Demon. The demon is a mythical creature that can be seen in Christianity.
The poem has a very deep kind of meaning related to his childhood. Loneliness becomes a central theme of the poem ‘Alone’.
Except for childhood pain, he desired to be a passionate man though what was his passion it is not written. Passion is another theme of this poem.
Edgar Allan Poe is writing a poem in his young are that is ‘nostalgia’ becomes another part of the poem.
Summary of Alone
Alone by Edgar Allan Poe Meaning
If readers go through the line-by-line analysis then they will find the poet’s imagination and his views. Maybe the poem would be saying about the poet’s childhood days.
In the first line, he is telling that in his childhood he did not spend an hour like others. Maybe he is talking about his parents with whom he could not stay.
“As others saw—I could not bring
My passions from a common spring—”
Children like the poet saw many things but he could not bring his passion from ‘a common spring’. This line is very symbolic as he is comparing his passions with Spring, a season.
It was the poet, who also had not taken sorrows from the source. It seems the source is of disruption.
“My sorrow—I could not awaken”
Edgar Allan Poe had sorrow may for his passion but he never let it awakened. Poet’s heart needs a joy for that and he gains what he loved for himself. The poem tells us that he was lonely when he was brought up.
Edgar Allan Poe further says his childhood days may have written on a storm and it was a storm. The poem brings the good from his life and he makes them all good.
“A mystery which binds me still-“
The mystery of the poet’s childhood days binds him like a book. It is the poet, who wants to be a greater man in his life and he also becomes that.
Quotes from Alone
“From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain—
From the sun that ’round me roll’d”
By these three lines, now Poe has started explaining images to open the truth to the readers. Maybe he takes inspiration from the torrent or the mountain.
The red cliff of the mountain gives the poet energy to stand up in life. Even he takes inspiration from the Sun that is rolling and rounding beside him.
Here he tries to say that the world is rolling the sun round and round that seems Sun is rounding with the poet.
Again he makes references to ‘Autumn’ that fills the world golden and the lightening sky. The sky disappears by flying from him.
“From the thunder, and the storm—
And the cloud that took the form”
From the thunder and the storm, he takes inspiration and the cloud takes a form. These are his desires that he can see by looking at the sky.
“(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view—”
Now in the last part of the poem, he comes back to reality and says the best part of the sky ‘heaven’s becomes blue and a demon’s image come he looking at the sky.
Analysis
When Edgar Allan Poe is writing the poem, he was in his adulthood. And his struggles for settlement becomes a highlighter. Each of his lines is the reflections of his sorrows and feelings.
“As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring”
Edgar Allan Poe is justifying himself by comparing himself with others. He found nothing in his childhood and that gives him pain. Even the title ‘Alone’ is very significant because it was the inner state of Edgar Allan Poe.
Literary Devices of the Poem
After the death of Edgar Allan Poe, this poem becomes very famous. The poem consists of many literary devices.
At first, Syncope comes that means writing a word using apostrophe like,
‘ev’ry’,’ lov’d’, ‘pass’d’ these words are written using apostrophe.
Then comes Anaphora, that means the repetition of is the same words at the beginning of two lines one after another,
“As others were—I have not seen
As others saw—I could not bring”
Synecdoche is another poet device that means a part of a line representing the whole sense of line.
“And all I lov’d—I lov’d alone—”
Enjambment also comes as a literary device that means the continuation of thoughts even in the next lines like,
“From the torrent, or the fountain—
From the red cliff of the mountain”
Alliteration is another relevant poetic use the takes apart. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds in the line like,
” ’round me roll’d”
Imagery in Alone
Imagery is another poetic device that is also celebrated.
Questions and Answers
Why did Poe write alone?
Edgar Allan Poe wrote the poem to expose his childhood pain.
When did Edgar Allen Poe write alone?
It was written in 1829 but was not published.
What is the meaning of the poem alone by Edgar Allan Poe?
The loneliness and poet’s passion is the meaning of this poem ‘Alone’.