Poe's life had many hardships that inspired his work. Readers can clearly see the connection to Poe and the other people in his life to the characters in his poems and stories. Many of Poe's works may seem normal at first, but almost always end in tragedy, just as his life did.
He did not look to any literary works for inspiration, and acted more from his imagination and the experiences he went through. Acting more as a literary inspiration for others.
The Raven
The inspiration to Poe's darkest and most well known poem, written in 1845, was a real raven that was the beloved pet of the writer Charles Dickens who named it Grip. Dickens was fasinated by the bahaviors of his bet and kept it in his stables to study it. Dickens had been impressed by how intelligent and aggressive the bird was. Dickens also taught his raven to speak, just like a parrot, which is also what interested Poe the most and acted as a direct influence for his story "The Raven." Poe's raven favored the work "Nevermore" while Dicken's raven prefered "nobody," which Poe's raven also says. Poe also uses other direct references in hie poem to Grip.
One of the major inspirations of Poe's career was his wife Virginia, as well as her death. Coming from her death came some of his most well known poems such as �Annabel Lee�.
Annabel Lee
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
_I_ was a child and _she_ was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea:
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my ANNABEL LEE;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my ANNABEL LEE.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
Of the beautiful ANNABEL LEE;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the side of the sea.
Another inspiration of Poe was his aunt. She was the only family he became close to after his parents died. She treated him as her own, and he saw her as his mother, especially after he married her daughter, Virginia.
To My Mother
1849
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you--
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you,
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother--my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.