The Life and Work of Edgar Allen Poe The life of Poe is the most melodramatic of any of the major American writers of his generation. In Poe's poems, like his tales, his characters are tortured by nameless fears and longings. In both form and content Poe's early poetry is typically Romantic although of an unusually limited range. Today Poe is acclaimed as one of America's greatest writers, but in his own unhappy lifetimes he knew little but failure. Poe's characters as well as his plots are set in a negative satirical way, such as Poe led most of his life. Poe's personality and faults s