What parallels can be drawn between "The Raven" and Edgar Allan Poe's life?

s life was
filled with .  The  people that he loved in his life died too earlyhis parents and his wife,
Virginia.  Disinherited by his adopted father, much of Poes life was spent in poverty.  While
his wife suffered from tuberculosis, Poe wrote .  When The Raven was published, Poe felt
success for the first time.

In drawing parallels, the reader must keep in
mind that this poem is a work of . Although Poe may have interjected some of himself into the
poem,  it is unknown if anything like this scene happened to him.  Without knowing Poes inner
thoughts for this particular literature, biographies explain that most of his work was meant to
acquire popularity and money.  However, this poem has elements that are found in several of Poes
work.

Poe explains that every component of the poem is based on
logic:

...the raven enters the chamber to avoid a storm
(the "midnight dreary" in the "bleak December"), and its perch on a pallid
white bust was to create visual contrast against the dark black bird. No aspect of the poem was
an accident, he claims, but is based on total control by the author. 

Poe was not successful for most of his life.  He worked as a critic
and his scathing criticisms left him unpopular and sometimes unpaid.  His abusive personality
often annoyed people.  To soothe his inner troubles, Poe did resort to alcohol and
drugs.

Through his dark personality, Poe dealt with the psychological aspects
of the human being.  Dreams, nightmares, fears, death---these topics were the fodder for Poes
stories and his poems.

Parallells

The main character in
The Raven was obsessed with his lost love, .  Poe too suffered from the
knowledge that his beloved wife, Virginia, had a fatal disease and he might lose
her.

The main character finds himself longing for his lost
love.  He has separated himself from the rest of the world.  Poe too felt isolated
and separated from most of the world.

It is unclear if the
bird/raven is real or imagined through the mind of the man and his drinking or drugs.
Poe admitted that some of his ideas for his stories came from
nightmares and dreams that he had sometimes caused by his excessive
drinking.

The  mans loneliness is at the heart of the poem. Feeling  that
everyone has deserted him , the  narrator does parallel Poes longing for
acceptance in his chosen field and his life.

The man and the
bird sit and stare at each other until he feels as though the air has grown thicker.  
Much like Poe and his solution for his problems, the narrator
drinks:

Let me quaff this kind Nepenthe and
forget this lost Lenore!

Quoth the raven, €˜Nevermore.

Nepenthe is a drink that causes the person to feel oblivious to any
pain. Poe was known for using opiates and alcohol to ease his addictive
needs.