Poe's Life in Boston

EDGAR ALLAN POE,
"Sonnet–To My Mother" The Flag of Our Union, Boston
July 7, 1849

During the final year of his life, the only publication that would print any of Poe's writings–paying him money he desperately needed–was the Boston weekly newspaper The Flag of Our Union. The last four poems and last five short stories published during Poe's lifetime appeared in this popular publication that was then located in the Boston Museum Building at 24-26 Tremont Street. Poe's next to last poem was "For Annie," dedicated to his love in Lowell and published on April 28, 1849.
The final piece published before his death was the poem "To My Mother," a sonnet written to his mother-in-law Maria Clemm that is also a tribute to Eliza Poe, "My mother–my own mother–who died early." He could not have known that he was closing a circle when this poem was published in the city of his birth on July 7, 1849.

Courtesy of the American Antiquarian Society