What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
He couldn’t ease his sorrow no matter how hard he tried, he experienced little joy, he could not take from the same common spring as those around him, he couldn’t experience the same happiness. All that he loved he loved alone with nobody to share his experiences, a testament to his continuing loneliness, his questioning of how others can be so happy yet he cannot
Everyone that Poe loved, died. He felt as if, even though he loved them, they didn’t love him back (because they were dead).
797
I think it’s more that Poe, even as a child, had a fascination for the morbid. He could not take sorrow from the same source as others, nor joy from what made them smile. A sunny day made him dreary, but a death he might have found comforting. There was no word for ‘Goth’ or ‘Emo’ back then, so he was just a freak. Alone.
101
At age 17 Poe started the University of Virginia, but he did not do well there. He gambled so much and Allan became angry and withdrew Poe from the school. Poe returned to Richmond, but when he found the woman he loved engaged to another man, he left.