Annabel Lee

When the family returned to Richmond in 1820, Edgar continued to excel in private schools and studied Latin and prose. Despite his academic and athletic abilities, the young Poe was tormented in school by other students who bereaved him for being the son of actors and for his status as "stepson" of the Allens. Jane Stith Stanard, the mother of a classmate, offered support to Edgar until her untimely death in 1824. This brought about the first period of depression in the young Poe's life. During this same time, John Allen's business was suffering and he began drinking heavily.

In 1825, things started to turn around as John Allen received a large inheritance was able to send Poe to the University of Virginia. Poe had been courting young Sarah Elmira Royster and fully intended to marry her before leaving for university in 1826. Poe studied classical and modern languages, but found it difficult to maintain his level of lifestyle on his meager allowance. Consequently, the young student became buried in over $2000 of debt, which he tried to pay off by gambling. Poe was forced to leave school and return to Richmond to pay off the debts, which his father refused to pay. It was while he was in Richmond that he discovered that Sarah Royster had travelled overseas and become engaged to another man.

After working in his father's store, Poe returned to the city of his birth, Boston, in 1827 and adopted the pseudonym Henri Le Rennet. At the age of 18, Poe enlisted in the army under the name Edgar A. Perry and was ultimately sent to Charleston, South Carolina. While in Boston and South Carolina, Poe wrote his first collection of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems, and eventually rose to the rank of sergeant major. In February, 1829, Frances Allen died. After a brief reconciliation with his father, Poe entered the West Point Military Academy in July 1830. Less than six months later, he found out that John Allen re-married a woman who had children. Devastated in the knowledge that he would not receive an inheritance from Allen, Poe began to gamble and drink heavily. In March 1831, he was dismissed from West Point.

Poe moved in with relatives of his mother, Elizabeth Poe, and published another volume of poetry. He struggled to obtain regular employment, but failed. His life turned around in 1832 after publishing a series of comical satirical prose in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier, including, Metzengerstein, The Duc de L'Omelette, The Bargain Lost, A Tale of Jerusalem, and A Decided Loss. Poe enjoyed great success for these pieces and finally began to rise in popularity. In 1835, Poe published his first horror story, Berenice, in the Southern Literary Messenger. He subsequently became the publisher of the journal.

Even on his deathbed in 1834, John Allen refused to see Edgar. In 1835, his grandmother, Elizabeth Poe, died and he moved back to Richmond with his aunt and cousin. On 16 May 1836, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin Virginia Clemm and moved with his new bride and his aunt to New York City and then Philadelphia. It was here that Poe expanded his career as a fiction writer, publishing Ligeia (1838), The Fall of the House of Usher (1839), and William Wilson (1840). His first detective story, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, was published in 1841, followed by increasing popular success with The Raven (1845). He wrote nearly all of his famous poems in the last years of his life, including Ulalume (1847).

Despite his literary success, Poe was again looking at tragedy with the failing health of his wife, Virginia. In January 1847, she died and Poe was hit by deep physiological depression and heavy drinking. Between drinking binges, Poe managed to continue writing and even forged friendships with several woman, including his teenage love interest, Mrs. Sarah Elmira Shelton (Royster). In Richmond, Poe wrote his last poem, Annabel Lee (1849).

After returning north, on 3 October 1849, Poe was found unconscious on a Baltimore street. He spent his last days delirious in hospital. On 7 October 1849, Poe uttered his last words, "Lord help my poor soul." He was buried the following day in Baltimore's Presbyterian Cemetery. A brief obituary in the Baltimore Clipper noted that Poe had died of "congestion of the brain."

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