Edgar Allen Poe

One of my favorite poems by Edgar Allen Poe is "Alone". I found it back in high school when we first were introduced to more intense poetry like Edgar Allen Poe's. I connected really easily to it because I was different in high school, I was weird and always had my nose in a book. So this poem I understood at a different level than most. I of course though did not completely connect fully to this poem until later on when I understood that just because I like different things does not mean I'm weird or abnormal. This is just another example for me that poetry is such a great tool to have in the classroom because of the many connections that students can make to poetry. Poetry opens the soul and can make deeper connections then we might even know, and it could help students get through something in their life.
Also, Edgar Allen Poe is somewhat a role model for some of the outcast students. With his style of writing, his topics of choice, and his self-expression within his poetry. Students can take his style and make it their own. They can express themselves by writing their own poetry and taking after Poe. Students can understand how poetry can be an outlet for them and how to use it outside the classroom as well.
Also, Poe's poetry can be used for so many different lessons throughout the years, but is it being overused? By the time I got to college, I was bored with Poe because of how much we studied it, analyzed it, and re-read it over and over and over again. It just got too repetitive. As teachers, we need to connect with the previous and post grades and figure out what they're using in their curriculum so that we can prevent turning a student off to literature or poetry, or any other thing we use within our curriculum.