Alone (Poe) Analysis

What's the form of one hand clapping? Our lonely speaker actually has a lot of formal surroundings in this poem. For example, "Alone" is made up entirely of couplets and is mostly composed in a m...

"Alone" is a retrospective poem, which means that it's a poem told by a guy looking back on his childhood. This complicates the whole speaker issue. The guy who is actually speaking in the poem is,...

"Alone" is all over the place when it comes to settings. Think of all the different places the poem mentions: mountains, fountains, autumn sunlight, torrents, thunderstorms (complete with lightning...

If we were going to describe the sonic qualities of this poem in one word, that word would be repetition. It is everywhere. In rhymes, in words, in sounds—all over the place. You really can't swi...

"Alone" is one of those poems that never really had a title. But wait, we just said it's called "Alone." So…yeah, we should probably clarify that. It has a title now, but young Edgar never bother...

You can always count on Edgar Allan Poe to be mysterious, that's for sure. Many of his famous stories feature bizarre events that are, ultimately, unexplained. In "The Fall of the House of Usher",...

"Alone" is a pretty smooth go, for the most part—no crazy Shakespearean words, no weird, off-the-wall metaphors. We're also spared any long, convoluted sentences that don't make any sense.The onl...

Nobody really knows how Poe died. No, seriously—it's actually a big mystery. Some theories include alcoholism, other medical conditions, and even a savage beating. (Source) Poe once did somethin...

This is a poem about loneliness. The speaker's only real companions are the fountains and mountains and torrents he describes. There's nothing even remotely sexual going on in "Alone."