Alone by Edgar Allan Poe

The poem, "Alone by Edgar Allan Poe," is a lyric poem with iambic tetrameter couplets. In Edgar's poem, Edgar vents his frustrations and own negativity to illuminate the darker side of existence using his own life experiences as the speaker of the poem.

In the first stanza, the speaker talks about how he is different from all the other children during his childhood, "From childhood's hour I have not been". He feels that he never fits in and he has different thoughts from his peers as told, "As others were; I have not seen". The speaker is a unique child but as a child, he did not notice how special he truly is. He always made others happy by showing how happy he is but deep inside, he is not that happy. He also states how he is unable to feel deep strong love from the same source as other people. "I could not bring, My passions from a common spring". "Spring" symbolizes an origin or source of passion and his source of passion has never been the same as those around him. The second stanza talks about the death of his parents when he was little. His father abandoned the family and his mother died a year after his exit.

The third stanza talks about the complexity of his childhood life. The speaker tells the reader that "mystery" still affects him which derives from everything that is good and bad in his life. "From every depth of good and ill, The mystery which binds me still." The "mystery" stops the speaker from being able to see the world as everyone else does. It controls him and makes him view everything negatively. The speaker views water as a rushing violent torrent, while others might see it as a peaceful fountain. "From the torrent, or the fountain", the word "torrent" is an image of violent rushing energy, while "fountain" portrays an image of peacefulness. When the speaker relates these images to his own perspective and the perspective of others, it emphasizes the difference between his feelings and those of others. The verses "From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of a mountain, From the sun that round me rolled..." can also be symbolic for the moment when he begins to feel rage and anger, but does not understand why he feels this way. Red usually represents anger or passion. The sun can represent burning heat and the feelings that one may have when they become angry. Poe presents images of nature such as "the red cliff of the mountain" and "the sun". The speaker is effective in converting these images into beautiful and calm images when he says "Heaven was blue". He looks back at his journey in life which he considers "blue," and blue represents good. However, his life is still blocked by darkness in his life, "Of a demon in my view".