“Hear the sledges with the bells–
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!”
These are the opening lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘The Bells.’ Written in 1848, the year before he died, this poem is separated into four parts, each representing a milestone of the human experience–childhood, youth, maturity, and death. Each part is told through the sounds of bells: the first stanza is a study of merry sleigh bells; the second, joyous wedding bells; the third, roaring alarm bells; and the final stanza ends with the rhythmic tolling of funeral bells.
Some scholars believe that Poe drew inspiration from the bells of the Jesuit-sponsored Fordham University, only a few blocks from his home in the Bronx. In fact, there is a plaque on the exterior of the University Church that reads, “The bell in the tower, known since as Old Edgar Allan, is said to have inspired Poe, a friend and neighbor, to write his celebrated poem, ‘The Bells.'”
But to understand how Poe even came to live in the old village of Fordham in the Bronx, we must start at the beginning.
Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809. His parents were professional actors, working at a repertory company in Boston at the time of his birth.
Before his third birthday, both his parents would be dead.
He was informally adopted and raised in the home of John Allan, a prosperous exporter from Richmond, Virginia. As a child, Poe attended the best schools available, and was admitted to the University of Virginia at Charlottesville in 1825. There, he distinguished himself academically, but was forced to leave after less than a year due to debt, since Allan refused to support him.
Upon his return to Richmond in 1827, Poe’s relationship with Allan disintegrated, and soon after Poe left for Boston, where he enlisted in the army and published his first poetry collection, Tamerlane, and Other Poems.
This collection was a small, slender volume of about 40 pages. It received almost no attention during Poe’s lifetime. There are no known signed copies of this book, and it appears that even Poe didn’t keep a copy of it.
On page 26 of this inauspicious and forgotten collection is a poem, entitled ‘Dreams,’ that is a touching and dramatic declaration that the writer’s inner world of the imagination is richer and more meaningful than the sterile, emotionally cold reality.
“Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream!” This first line immediately expresses the speaker’s desire to remain in the dream world forever.
“…to him whose heart must be,
And hath been still, upon the lovely earth,
A chaos of deep passion, from his birth.”
In light of the tragic beginning of his life, these lines can be interpreted as referencing him becoming an orphan before the age of three. Poe believes that this emotional turmoil will follow him for the rest of his life, and that his suffering is intrinsic and inescapable in the real world.
He published a second collection, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and other Minor Poems, which received only slightly more attention when it was published in 1829.
That same year, Poe was honorably discharged from the army, having attained the rank of regimental sergeant major. He was then admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. However, because Allan could not financially support Poe nor provide the necessary consent for Poe to resign, Poe obtained a dismissal by ignoring his duties and violating his regulations.
After being expelled from West Point and disowned by Allan, Poe traveled to Baltimore to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm, and her young daughter, Virginia.
While living in Baltimore, Poe focused on his literary career. He published his third volume of verse, Poems (1831), in which he explores a Gothic style, in particular through his preoccupation with death and psychological instability. His poem ‘Irene’ (revised as ‘The Sleeper’) features a distraught young man who, at midnight, mourns over his lover’s corpse.
“The lady sleeps: oh! may her sleep
As it is lasting so be deep –
No icy worms about her creep:
I pray to God that she may lie
Forever with as calm an eye”
In an effort to make more money, Poe turned to fiction. He wrote mostly Gothic-style horror and suspense stories, as he found that those sold best. In 1833, Poe’s story ‘MS. Found in a Bottle,’ a story about a midnight accident at sea and a mysterious ship that appears out of the “watery hell,” won a competition sponsored by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. He won a $50 prize and gained attention.
The attention from his story landed him a job as an editor at The Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, and this job promised to temporarily alleviate his financial problems. He moved there, bringing his aunt and his 12-year-old cousin, Virginia, with him.
The next year, in 1836, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. He was 27 years old. It was around this time that he descended into alcoholism as well and lost his job as editor.
His profits continued to remain sparse, even as his writings gained attention in the late 1830s and early 1840s. He supported himself by editing magazines, and finally decided to move to New York City in 1844 at the age of 35 in search of better opportunities.
It’s 2025 and a Saturday morning in April. I approach the Edgar Allan Poe cottage, quietly sitting in a small park, named the Poe Park. The Bronx streets are quiet. The sun is bright but offers no warmth. My parents and I approach the cottage, stepping on stones that lay a path through the short grass.
Though Poe had originally moved to New York City in search of economic opportunities, he moved to the Bronx because of his young wife, Virginia. She had fallen ill with tuberculosis at the young age of 19, and Poe hoped that the Bronx country air might cure her. He found a cottage in the Bronx, which he rented for $100 a year, and remained there from 1846 to 1849.
It was here, at the cottage, that Poe wrote some of his most famous poems, including ‘The Bells,’ ‘Eureka,’ and ‘Annabel Lee.’
The cottage was built in 1812 and was typical of the working-class houses that filled the old village of Fordham. It has only five rooms: a kitchen, parlor, and bedchamber on the main floor, and two small rooms in the attic.
The floor creaks under the weight of the melee of visitors that have assembled on this Saturday morning. The cottage’s rooms have been restored with furnishings appropriate to Poe’s residency and the time period, including a desk and rope bed. The wicker rocking chair in the parlor is thought to have belonged to the family.
The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage is owned by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, is operated by The Bronx County Historical Society, and is a member of the Historic House Trust. It is open on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., and the admission fee is $5 for adults and $3 for students, children, and seniors.
Perhaps the saddest part of the house was Virginia’s room. It was the smallest room, situated on the far end of the house. There is a small bed, a chair, and a round table. A window sits to the right of the bed.
It is in this bed that Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe died of tuberculosis, at the age of 24, on January 30th, 1847. The pain of living with tuberculosis in the final years of her life was in no way ameliorated by her short marriage or the extreme poverty in which she and her husband lived.
In June 1846, Poe wrote to her, “Keep up your heart in all hopefulness, and trust yet a little longer–In my last great disappointment, I should have lost my courage but for you–my little darling wife you are my greatest and only stimulus now, to battle with this uncongenial, unsatisfactory and ungrateful life.” This is the only surviving letter Poe wrote to his wife. Less than 8 months later, she was dead.
Poe was devastated.
He wrote the poem ‘Annabel Lee’ in May 1849. This poem is narrated by a young man who has lost the love of his life, Annabel Lee. It is a story of a young love cut short by tragedy.
“I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love –
I and my Annabel Lee –
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.”
He describes their love as so great that even the angels in Heaven were jealous. This jealousy drove the angels to kill Annabel Lee, to take her away from the man who loved her so much.
“The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me –
Yes! – that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.”
I interpret Annabel Lee as being Virginia, a girl that Poe loved so dearly, but tragically died. He took care of her for months in his Bronx cottage, and her death devastated him.
He became involved in several romantic affairs after her death and was preparing for his second marriage when he arrived in Baltimore, for reasons unknown, in late September of 1849.
On October 3rd, 1849, he was discovered in a state of semi-consciousness. He died four days later without regaining the necessary lucidity to explain the events of the last few days. In that respect, his death remains a mystery.
“For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;”
The final stanzas of the poem mourn her death, a death that he was likely expecting during the last months of her illness, but still came as a shock.
Standing in front of her little room in his cottage, 178 years after her death, I can only imagine the pain and suffering she endured throughout her entire life, especially in the years of her illness.
Poe influenced entire movements of literature and art. His poetry and short stories influenced the French Symbolists of the late 19th century. He was the principal forerunner of the “art for art’s sake” movement in 19th-century European literature. He is also credited with creating the modern horror tale and parenting the science fiction and detective story genres.
He had a particular idea of what it meant to be a writer. His self-declared intention was to formulate strictly artistic ideals, which was unorthodox considering that, at the time, most were concerned with the utilitarian value of literature, a tendency he termed the “heresy of the Didactic.”
He believed that, through the precise and deliberate use of language, one may express, though always imperfectly, a vision of truth and the essential condition of human existence.
His theory of literary creation rested on two central points. First, a work must create a unity of effect on the reader. Second, this effect must not be produced by accident, but must be the result of rational deliberation on the author’s part and formed through every little detail.
In poetry, this unity of effect must arouse the reader’s sense of beauty and usually manifests in the form of sadness, strangeness, and loss. In prose, the effect should be revelatory of some truth.
There is a psychological intensity that is characteristic of Poe’s writings, especially in his tales of horror, such as ‘The Black Cat,’ ‘The Cask of Amontillado,’ and ‘The Tell-Tale Heart.’ Nevertheless, he employed brilliant control over language and technique, combined with an original imagination, to create truly transformative and profound prose.
But when reading his work, it is important to consider that his talent in writing was heavily influenced by his tragic life, beginning from his grief-filled childhood and ending in his mysterious death.
“Hear the tolling of the bells –
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!”
Though the first bells in Poe’s poem ‘The Bells’ evoke a sense of joy and wonder, these final bells bring a sense of mortality. These bells evoke a chaotic and tragic atmosphere that resembles the final years of Poe’s life.
But when reading his work, it is important to consider that his talent in writing was heavily influenced by his tragic life, beginning from his grief-filled childhood and ending in his mysterious death.