To My Mother

“To My Mother” is a devotional sonnet written by Edgar Allan Poe. The poem was originally published in July 1849 in The Flag of Our Union, a popular weekly story newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The lyric poem describes Poe’s tender affection for Maria Poe Clemm, his mother-in-law. The poem expresses admiration for motherhood as well as Poe’s sorrow over the early death of his wife. Due to the universality of the loving sentiment expressed toward mothers, portions of the poem were quoted on Mother’s Day plaques and cards in the 1920s through the 1940s.

Poet Biography

In 1809 in Boston, Edgar Allan Poe was born. His parents were both professional actors, and they named him “Edgar” after a character in the Shakespeare play’s King Lear, which they were both performing in at the time of his birth. They parted shortly after his birth, and Poe’s mother raised him until she passed away from tuberculosis at the age of 24 when Poe was almost three years old. His father also passed away, and Poe was taken in by John Allan, a successful businessman, and his wife Frances, in Richmond, Virginia.