isolation retreat 78th day
Edgar Allan Poe, Alone
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—
Alone by Edgar Allan Poe video created by illneas, “I film and create movies for my favorite poems or spoken word art.”
skycape photography: Nikon D750 f/5.6 1/2500 112mm 400 ISO edited in Capture One
a meditative journey 
I wrote about Edgar Allan Poe many years ago, for an English class. Poe’s mother died when he was 2 years old (almost 3). Some say she had pneumonia, some say it was tuberculosis. From what I read, the last time Poe saw his mother–she was throwing up blood and being carried out of the house by men dressed in black robes. I think that this experience probably influenced a lot of his frightening stories, where he often uses the colors of red and black, ticking clocks and heartbeats, and the fear of death. After his mom died, he was sent to live with relatives. Things were never the same for him.
I am sure that writing stories helped him to some extent. The last lines from his poem The RAVEN are these:
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and the excerpt from “The Raven”…it would be great fun to be part of a class that reviewed his work.
Actually it was an English class where the assignment was to do a compare and contrast–of different works by a particular writer (I chose Edgar Allen Poe). The professors advised me against that because, “too many people write about Poe.” But in the end, she really liked my 5 page paper. 🙂 I still have it somewhere. I believe the Title I gave it was “Beyond the Wall Hidden.”