Alone by: Edgar Allen Poe
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 loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every 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 rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed 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.
My summary:
Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston in 1809, soon after his birth, his father left him and his mother. Shortly after that, his mother died, so Edgar was truly alone. In his poem “Alone”, Poe is talking about his life, and how he has never really been happy. He starts off this poem by saying “From childhood’s hour I have not been as others were; I have not seen as others saw”, and he’s saying that even when he was a child, he tried to be happy, but he still did not feel the same joy other children felt. Then, in line 6, he proceeds to say “I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone; and all I loved, I loved alone.” In this line, he is rhyming, which is a literary device, but he is also saying that he tried to be happy but it just didn’t work. And, he could love things, but he never really shared what he loved with other people because not only did he feel alone, but he was. In this poem, Poe also says that his childhood was the worst part of his depression. In the second to last line, he puts “when the rest of Heaven was blue” in parenthesis to show that even his heaven was sad looking. In the very last line of this poem, Poe says there is a demon in his view, which basically means that no matter what he does to try and be happy, there will always be something stopping him.
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 loved, I loved alone.
Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn
From every 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 rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed 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.
My summary:
Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston in 1809, soon after his birth, his father left him and his mother. Shortly after that, his mother died, so Edgar was truly alone. In his poem “Alone”, Poe is talking about his life, and how he has never really been happy. He starts off this poem by saying “From childhood’s hour I have not been as others were; I have not seen as others saw”, and he’s saying that even when he was a child, he tried to be happy, but he still did not feel the same joy other children felt. Then, in line 6, he proceeds to say “I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone; and all I loved, I loved alone.” In this line, he is rhyming, which is a literary device, but he is also saying that he tried to be happy but it just didn’t work. And, he could love things, but he never really shared what he loved with other people because not only did he feel alone, but he was. In this poem, Poe also says that his childhood was the worst part of his depression. In the second to last line, he puts “when the rest of Heaven was blue” in parenthesis to show that even his heaven was sad looking. In the very last line of this poem, Poe says there is a demon in his view, which basically means that no matter what he does to try and be happy, there will always be something stopping him.