I have to write a paper on Poe that would talk about his fears. I would like to get information on if he was afraid of being buried alive. If you have any answers I would be very thankful.

Thank you, David Simko

-- Anonymous, February 19, 2002

Answers

Though he treats it somewhat tongue in cheek in "The premature Burial" Poe does seem preoccupied with the subject. He had some heart stoppages of his own, slight and the dead are not really dead for Poe. This is not always a comfort. His idealization of their heavenly hope is not as convincing as the horror he has of their haunting and that being "suspended" between this world and the next is the eternal tomb. Other foibles include a general(non-superstitious?) fear of the dark, vertigo, fear of losing loved ones was much more evident, fear(and hatred) of enemies and a general fear that the afterlife was more darkness than light from his desperate present perspective. Poverty? Drink? Or how about loneliness and silence that open up the floodgates of dread? Lots of examples.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2002

i think maybe it's more that he was afraid of being left alone as he was so many times in his life.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002

I feel that Poe had a fear of beeing buried alive. When you read and think about his story line I have found a desending pattern. He always starts his story above ground. Then shortly after you see how it all ends up underground. Then you think the biggest fear of the 1800's was being buried alive. It happen quit often when people were mistaken for the dead. I still find his work to be quit enlighting.

-- Anonymous, October 30, 2002

i think that by reading some of his stories you can see that alot of the suspense and dread occur underground. including being the pitch and the pendulum where the fear is in an enclosed area, and when he burries a man in the wall of a wine cellar...i think he does this just to show his own fear of the dark and being burried alive by doing it to others in his stories...i am not the best on this topic but i thik it was an ok answer

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2002

I think maybe Poe was scared to be alone maybe he felt that if he was alone the whole world would end or something.In Poe's story Premature Burial he kinda tells us that that is what he is afraid of.Just not out right he kinda hides it in the story.And the darkness is something else he really didn't like.

-- Anonymous, January 28, 2003

I've heard that He was so afraid of being buried alive, he had someone put a bell on his grave incase he was alive and he could ring it and they would dig him up!

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2003

I think that he was afraid of being in solitute, not having company and having his fear over take his mind and all his sanity.

-- Anonymous, May 09, 2003

he wasn't scared he just wrote about it

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2004

Hey mike are you sure about your answer. R.L.V

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2004

he was scared of boogey man

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2004

Edgar Allan Poe was a very depressed man.Many people died in his lifetime.When poe wrote, he expressed his feelings of sorrow; all he wanted was for other people to feel the pain that he felt.Poe was afraid of bein alone he was one of those guys who needed company.In a way i think Poe was afraid of death....he was afaid of being away from the people in his life forever.

-- Anonymous, March 07, 2004