EDGAR ALLAN POE’S “TAMERLANE AND OTHER POEMS”: EARLY CREATIVE IDENTITY AND THE ECHO OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Keywords:
Edgar Allan Poe, Tamerlane, Early American Literature, Romantic Poets, Loss and Ambition, Nineteenth-Century Poetry.Abstract
This article explores Edgar Allan Poe’s debut collection, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), situating it within the author’s turbulent early biography. While initially neglected in both circulation and critical response, this booklet provides insight into Poe’s nascent literary style, foreshadowing the introspective, often melancholic qualities that would later define his celebrated works. Through an examination of “Tamerlane,” the paper highlights thematic parallels—loss, longing, and ambition—between the poem’s protagonist and Poe’s own formative experiences as a young, financially constrained writer contending with personal uncertainties.
References
Poe, Edgar Allan. Tamerlane and Other Poems. “By a Bostonian.” Boston: Calvin F.S. Thomas, 1827.
Allen, Hervey. Israfel: The Life and Times of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1926.
Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1941.
Whipple, Edwin Percy. “Edgar Allan Poe.” Putnam’s Monthly Magazine, vol. 2, 1853, pp. 199–203.
Fisher, Benjamin F. Poe and the Gothic. Bethesda: International Scholars Publications, 1999.
