Analysis of the Poem “Alone”

In Edgar Alan Poe’s poem titled, “Alone”, he conveys a sense of loneliness at a young age. Poe contains a pessimistic outlook on life stemming from the fact he never had an actual childhood, he was always alone and this made him categorize himself as “different from the others”. He uses several different examples of figurative language to exhibit his tone and implicitly portray his inner thoughts. Poe initiates the poem with a lonely, somber tone and as the story escalates he shifts to a more dark, pessimistic tone. Poe commences his poem in a depressing tone with the use of words such as “alone”, “sorrow,”. Due to his early years he contains a different perspective on life from others, which is exhibited in the first lines of his poem, “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.” Anaphora is used in these first lines to emphasize the meaning of his lack of childhood. Ever since Poe was young he felt that he never completely fit in with the rest of the world and in his opinion this impacted his life and interests. He was able to recognize his uniqueness at a young age. Poe continues by writing, “and all I loved I loved alone” this dichotomy indicates his alienation from the world. Considering he was constantly surrounded by death of loved ones, influenced his thoughts and feelings. Every person he ever loved died and this left him in a desolate state where he felt like he had no one to turn to. His words grow more intense as the poem escalates ultimately shifting the tone to a more dark voice reinforced by such words as stormy, thunder, and demon.. He states,” Then- in my childhood, in the dawn of a most stormy life-was drawn from every depth of good and ill.” With the use of conceit, Poe is comparing two contrasting elements to signify no matter where he went, the darkness was always present. In the lines “From the torrent or the fountain, From the red cliff of the