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=Alone (Edgar Allan Poe)=

"Alone" is a 22-line poem, originally written in 1829 by Edgar Allan Poe and left untitled and unpublished during Poe's lifetime. The original manuscript was signed "E. A. Poe" and dated March 17, 1829. In February of that year, Poe's foster mother Frances Allan had died. In September 1875, the poem, which had been in the possession of a family in Baltimore, was published with its title in Scribner's Monthly. The editor, E. L. Didier, also reproduced a facsimile of the manuscript, though he admitted he added the date himself. The poem is now often included in anthologies.

The Poem
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—

=Context=

Poe wrote this poem in the autograph album of Lucy Holmes, later Lucy Holmes Balderston. The poem was never printed during Poe's lifetime. It was first published by E. L. Didier in Scribner's Monthly for September of 1875, in the form of a facsimile. The facsimile, however, included the addition of a title and date not on the original manuscript. That title was "Alone," which has remained. Doubts about its authenticity, in part inspired by this manipulation, have since been calmed. The poem is now seen as one of Poe's most revealing works.

=Analysis=

"Alone" is often interpreted as autobiographical, expressing the author's feelings of isolation and inner torment. Poet Daniel Hoffman believed "Alone" was evidence that "Poe really was a haunted man." The poem, however, is an introspective about Poe's youth, written when he was only 20 years old. Alone" expresses very candidly Poe's feelings of isolation and loneliness as a child, where—if the poem is any indication—he was pretty much different from everybody else he knew. And yet, that difference became an important part of Poe's identity. The second half of the poem, for example, is all about how the speaker is possessed by some "mystery." Clearly, being different—being all alone—has its perks. It's almost like the speaker is privy to something special, some visionary power, like ESP or something.

It is difficult to figure out what exactly this "mystery" is, but the bottom line is that sometimes being different is all that bad. Sometimes, being different is actually a sign of one's creativity and uniqueness. Like Poe, whose weirdness marked him as one of the most revered writers in all of American Literature.