Evan Byrd

Introduction to Literature

April 23, 2017

Beauty and Loss as to Child and Adult: Romance by Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe is not as well known for his poetry. Students, teachers, and avid readers

remember him as the man who wrote creepy horror stories. If much research is don on Poes

writing the poem Raven will be the first one that comes on the list. The poem Romance also

known as Preface is one of the more undiscovered works of Poe. This poem dives into the

common themes he illustrates; beauty, loss, and love. Romance describes to readers the

beautiful romance of childhood full of imagination and wonder, and the factual tragedy of

adulthood.

To me a painted paroquet (5). This is a line from the childhood portion of the poem. What is

a painted paroquet? By fact it is only a bird known as the true parrot. To Poe the bird

represents beauty and color of childhood. Poes childhood didnt have this color. His childhood

his scarred by the death of mother and father. Poverty was a constant issue through his early life.

Color changes to darkeness in Poes poem. What once was a beautiful romance is turned to

something cruel. My heart would feel to be a crime (20). At a young age Poes childhood

neighbor and fianc becomes engaged to another man. This would break anyones heart, and

change the course of your life. It would most defintiley make romance seem like a cruel dark

thing.

The reality of life has set in for an innocent child. Romance, who loves to nod and sing,
 With drowsy head and folded wing, Among the green leaves as they shake Far down within

some shadowy lake, To me a painted paroquet, Hath beena most familiar bird Taught me

my alphabet to say To lisp my very earliest word (1-8). These lines describe something

wonderful, and will take readers back to a time in their life when things were simple. As

adulthood approaches things change. Life is not as simple as it once was.

Edgar Allen Poe may have been known for creepy stories, but this poem brings a different type

of shill along your spine. A shill of knowing the reality. Childhood doesnt last forever, it fades

away. Despite this fact the memories will always be there. Just like learning the alphabet, it never

goes away. The sunny skies, the beauty of the outdoors, and the imagination children have is

something they will lose, but never forget. Adulthood is marked by heartbreak, shattered dreams,

and tragedies. Although this is what Poe intended us to see his final line says something

different. Unless it trembled with the strings (22). Heart strings can be tugged, they can reveal

the child like nature even adults possess. The imagination that is still hidden in the mind. The

sunny skies that are still visible, even though the clouds dont always leave. Poe offers hope to

the reader. If only heart strings are opened to the tugging, all beauty is not loss.

Poe writes Romance to point readers to the beauty of childhood, and the loss of adulthood, but

the possibility of hope. The poems lines are divided in half. Two separate worlds. Two different

times of life. The only thing that keeps them together is the memory in the heart.
 Works Cited

"Edgar Allan Poe." Biography.com. A&E Networks Television, 27 Oct. 2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.