The Life of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe lived a hard life, which is reflected in his poetry. Its dark and gloomy settings along with often depressing topics mirror his difficult times. "The Raven" shows his feelings of loss when his wife, Virginia, died from an illness. Many of his poems contain the death of beautiful women, most of which, even though they were written before her death, are understood to be about the loss of her life. The poem "Annabel Lee" is also clearly about his wife and his sense of loss. Many of his poems are also about sadness over a lost happiness. They tell of how time has not been kind and the past was much better than the present. Some of hi