Great Regulars: Isolation is one of our greatest fears,

solitude one of our greatest pleasures. Yet the difference between them is perilously small. It is on this threshold that Poe stands in this poem--the threshold of madness and vision.

In the opening lines, Poe draws us deep into a state of disconnection. The stark negating sound of "not" repeats like a mantra or a tolling bell, again and again, cutting the speaker off from the world. Not, not, not, not, not.

from Christopher Nield: The Epoch Times: The Antidote--Classic Poetry for Modern Life: A Reading of 'Alone' by Edgar Allan Poe

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