January 19, 1809 -- October 7, 1849

From short stories, to poems, to even a novel, Edgar Allan Poe has made great feats in not only poetry but in the development of American poetry. Engaging multiple genres, Edgar Allan Poe was the first to create the detective fiction. He is often associated with Dark Romanticism, a subgenre of Romanticism with the fascination of the demonic and the grotesque, and he often uses the style of macabre--the emphasization of the details and symbols of death. Clearly, Edgar Allan Poe depicts gruesome pictures in his works and some of that is due to his childhood and life story.