These stories with fanciful names like Ligeia, Eleonora, Morella, Berenice and the tale _Assignation_ were given us by the poet from the depths of his unconscious; love repressions starting from the death of his own mother in infancy, the loss of his foster mother, Mr. Allan's first wife, the grief at the death of his friend's mother, the quarrel with Mr. Allan's second wife, the love affairs with Miss Royster, and Miss Herring, but especially the rejection by Mary entered into the influences, which made up not only the poems and tales previously mentioned, but much of his later work. He was neurotic because he lost his mother in infancy and had many love disappointments. The only tale where he gives an account of the love emotions is in _The Spectacles_, written before or about 1844, and here he drew on his experiences, probably chiefly from memories of Mary. Now comes a question that has always puzzled his critics: Why was the poet so occupied with the subject of death of fair ladies or of depicting a man bereaved by the death of his love. Many replies have been made, but not altogether satisfactorily. The most common answer is that he was so occupied with the subject because he lost his own wife, Virginia. Some uninformed critics are of the belief that poems like _The Raven_ and _The Sleeper_, tales like _Eleonora_ and _Ligeia_, were written after his wife died. As a matter of fact these, with the exception of _The Raven_ and possibly _Eleonora_, were written even before Virginia burst a blood-vessel. There is evidence to make us believe that _Ulaume_, which is taken to refer to the death of his wife, was at least commenced before Mrs. Poe's death, in January, 1847; _Annabel Lee_ was, however, written after that date. Nearly all of Poe's short stories, too, had been published by that time. He was occupied with the subject of death long before he married; he mourns the death of women in _Lenore_, _Tamerlane_, and _The Sleeper_, all written before he was twenty-two years old. His first tales, _Assignation_, _Ligeia_, _Morella_, deal with the subject of women's deaths. So those who believe that he may have imagined Virginia dead after she burst a blood-vessel, and hence wrote as if she had died, are not right. For all the stories of this nature with the doubtful exception of _Eleonora_ were written before she burst a blood-vessel. _The Raven_ and _The Conqueror Worm_, two poems occupied with death, were written before her death but after her hemorrhage.