FREE ESSAY ON EDGAR ALLAN POE VS. HERMAN MELVILLE

EDGAR ALLAN POE VS. HERMAN MELVILLE

Sunday, December 03, 2000
Period 6
English Ms. Lynn
Melville vs. Poe
I chose to write about the similarities and differences between Herman Melville and Edgar
Allan Poe. Both authors/ poets lived a life you could write a book on. They began with
similarities from birth till death. Weird and strange events took place throughout their
stay on Earth.
Both authors time of birth was within a decade apart, and both were born on the East
Coast, Melville born in Boston and Poe born in New York. They each were born into poverty
and had troubles to worry about. Poe's parents died when he was at a young age, and
Melville's parents were failures in business, which led to the death of his father at the
age when Melville was twelve.
Poes education came from West Point Academy, but not by choice. His foster father paid
for Poe to attend, and eventually Poe dropped out. He moved with his Aunt Maria in
Baltimore. Melville received his education from school, and sailing the oceans with
sailors at a young age. Melville never looked back after sailing out on adventures. He
stayed and lived for a period of time on one of the islands called Nuku Hiva. 
At this time in their lives is when everything became twisted in my opinion. To start off
when Poe moves to Baltimore with his aunt, he then marries his cousin Virginia. How in
the world could you tell people, "Yeah, this is my fourteen year old cousin/ wife."? Does
not sound to good if you ask me! On the other hand you could be on an island where people
believed in canabalism. That is where Melville ended up while at his stay at Nuku Hiva. I
am not sure if Melville took part in eating humans, but either way you would not catch me
around these two weirdoes.
The climax of Melvillles career came in 1850, when he published Moby Dick. The book is
still a favorite today. He made money off of the book, but would it be enough to continue
publishing books? The climax of Poes carrer came when he published The Raven in 1845. The
book is still read in and out of the classrooms today. The Raven is better than Moby Dick
in my opinion. Both books are still sold in stores to this day.
One word to summarize both authors' careers is DEBT. They did not have enough money to
come out with more poems or stories. When they did come out they did not do so well as
their previous masterpieces. That's when drinking took over Poes life. It is said that
his drinking was exaggerated that he did not drink that much. As well as alcohol there
was opium and that was not better for Poe either. Then you have Melville and his
troubles. He is quoted saying; " Dollars Damn me". (English book) No money no
publications. Melville did however publish a collection of poems when he was older and
then retired. Poe died in 1849, and Melville in 1891.
I picked these two authors/ poets to write about because their masterpieces of writings
are still cherished to this very day. They each lived in the same time frame, and their
best works were with in five years of each other. Their styles of writing are different,
but still their work is like no other.