Alone, by Edgar Allan Poe, help with analysis

Welcome to A2K, Caitlinm. Here is the poem. Look at it line by line and tell us what each one means to you. Then look at the entire poem and see if you can draw any conclusions from it.

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.
THE END

alone
"From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen"
- From this he is saying that ever since he was young, he never fit in and his views were completely different from his peers
"As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring."
- From this, he is reiterating a bit, saying again that he was not like those around him, he recognized his uniqueness at a young age. he is also saying that he saw things differently and the same things that made others happy, did not make him happy"
"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."
- What I got from this was that he was refering to the death of his parents when he was very young.
"Then- in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life- was drawn"
-This is where I start having some trouble.... I think he is saying that he had a very hard life starting from childhood.
"From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:"
- I think what he is saying is that from both good and bad, he still was tormented by abandonment and seclusion.
"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,"
- This connects to the line above it, when he says that in all the good and ill in his life, he still manages to see the darkness.
"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. "
- Even though he is surrounded by all these natural occurances (for lack of a better word) in life, like the torrent, fountain, sun, lightning, he still sees the darkness of life. And the last three lines are the ones that I find the most interesting, and hes saying that when he looks at his life, and even though the rest of everything is blue (representing good), his view is still blocked by the bad.
*I also read in another analysis that the demon could represent his "foster" father.

Excellent. Now all that is left, is for you to write a brief overall view of the poem. Can you identify with it? If so, include that in your explication.

You might want to explain the powerful diction that only Poe possesses, and the result of its affect.

hmm what do you mean by "the powerful diction that only Poe possesses."?

His choice of words. They have always conjured up pictures in my mind. It's called imagery.

"From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by."

I can almost see the tynes
Smell the ozone and the clime.

Thanks!

i have to write an analysis essay about this poem using tone/theme and poetic devices/figurative language. i can't find any figurative language except for imagery. any help?

As someone who has had clinical depression, I can't help but notice that Poe's final lines describe how those afflicted with the disorder view the world (a personal pain while others see joy and beauty, loneliness in a crowd, a sadness that doesn't diminish with time.)

i have to do the some thing also ! its a project for reading class

Have u guys ever heard of the TP-CASTT method for analyzing poetry? I have to analyze "Alone" and am having a little bit of trouble.

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.
***Since I was a kid, I was different. I saw things a different way. I didn't know what to do with myself, something that everyone else was doing, I didn't know how to, it wasn't easy.

From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow;
***From that common spring of which I could not bring my passions, I could not come to closure with that of which caused me sadness.

I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
***In this life full of sadness, how will I find happiness?

And all I loved, I loved alone.
***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.
***I am blinded by every bad thing that has come across my life. I have created a demon. I can see it for it is myself.

Poe is describing the belief system underlying his addictive personality.

OK, here's my analysis of "Alone:"

First, let's start with the poem:

[1] From childhood's hour I have not been
[2] As others were; I have not seen,
[3] As others saw; I could not bring
[4] My passions from a common spring.
[5] From the same source I have not taken
[6] My sorrow; I could not awaken
[7] My heart to joy at the same tone;
[8] And all I loved, I loved alone.
[9] Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
[10] Of a most stormy life—was drawn
[11] Of every depth of good and ill
[12] The mystery which binds me still:
[13] From the torrent, or the fountain,
[14] From the red cliff of the mountain,
[15] From the sun that round me rolled
[16] In its autumn tint of gold,
[17] From the lightning in the sky
[18] As it passed my flying by,
[19] From the thunder, and the storm
[20] And the cloud that took the form
[21] When the rest of Heaven was blue
[22] Of the demon in my view.

I can connect to this poem so much, so much that it indescribable with words. Numbers in brackets mean lines. I will do a line-by-line analysis, then do an overall theme.

[1-3]: From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw;

I know I stopped in the middle of [3], but this is separate from the next "chunk." This section shows how Poe was so different, even from his childhood. Comparing his childhood to an hour shows that Poe thought of his life as brief and as meaningless as a day. The "seeing" part is all figurative: Poe had such different opinions, observations, and points of view on almost everything.

[3-4] ...I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.

Continuing [3] and finishing [4], this shows that Poe had different interests, no matter how hard he tried to "fit in" with the rest of his peer group. The "spring" in figurative, and it shows that emotions and passions, like water, are so easily changed (not true all the time).

[5-7] From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;

[5-7] shows me how different he was, even in his emotions. Sure, he was happy sometimes and sad other times, but never for the same reason.

[8] And all I loved, I loved alone.

This line shows a fundamental theme of the poem, that Poe was different and alone in every possible way. He had different interests, felt emotions for different reasons, and enjoyed what others didn't.

[9-10] Then—in my childhood—in the dawn
Of a most stormy life—was drawn

[9-10] shows me that Poe still compares his life to a day, just now "dawn" for childhood. It shows me that his life was all stormy and turbulent, never smooth. His journey of life was filled with gray skies and storm clouds.

[11-12] From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:

[11-12] shows that Poe now uncovers all his secrets, both good and bad, light and dark, along his search. However, he does not succeed in his search. All is vanity.

[13-14] From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,

[13-14] begins the search of why his life is so different, so sad. He searches everywhere (shown by the volume of a torrent), so carefully (shown by the meticulousness of the fountain), and to such great heights (shown by the height of the cliff on the mountain).

[15-16] From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,

[15-16] expresses Poe's feelings. It shows how the sun, such a positive, hopeful thing, can lift him so little from his hole of darkness inside of himself. The sun is almost teasing him, showing all the happiness in plain sight, but knowing that Poe can never appreciate or get them. The season, autumn, shows the looming darkness of winter.

[14-16] also show all the positive aspects of life, how people marvel at these things, but he doesn't. He has lost interest. Positive things mean very little to him now.

[17-18] From the lightning in the sky
As it passed my flying by,

To understand [17-18], you need to understand that Poe's loved ones all died at the age of 24, from the same illness: tuberculosis. The lightning is death, and it passed him while striking all his loved ones.

[19-20] From the thunder, and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form

The thunder and the storm are representations of Poe's life: all turbulent and sad, depressed and dark. One particular cloud is taking the form, but of what?

[21-22] (When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of the demon in my view.

The heaven in [21] is everyone else: so happy, so carefree, but the cloud prevents him from being that way. He does not know why, driving him into insanity.

The theme I can easily relate to, as easy as I can relate to the poem. Edgar Allan Poe was so different, so insane, so depressed in the face of generics, sanity, and happiness. This, I believe, is worse then death—to be condemned to live the other life, one filled with sadness and insanity, while everyone else around you is so happy and carefee, the others not knowing what is wrong with you, you not knowing what is wrong with yourself.

Alone is also my favorite story by Poe because he talks about his personal life.