Edgar Allen Poe's Alone

In Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “Alone”, Poe reveals that egocentrism can lead to loneliness because of an inability to see beyond oneself and truly know and understand others and experiences. In the poem, the persona speaks about how he has felt different ever since his childhood; he focuses on himself and his own problems instead of trying to have positive outlook on life. Excessive use of the words “I”, “my”, and “me” projects the idea of egocentrism and also portrays the inability to understand that others can feel out of place and can therefore be a source of comfort (line 1, 4, 12). When the speaker says “[he had] not seen / as others saw”, he means that he has a different perspective on ordinary events and emotions than everyone else has (2-3). He thinks that his life is the “most” difficult and that he is alone in his “[demons]”, when, in reality, others experience similar challenges (10, 22).
The use of words such as “others” (2), “common” (4), “same” (6), and “all” (8) portrays the speaker as the only one who is unique, when, in reality, no one is exactly the same. As the poem continues, though, the reader finds that it isn’t necessarily his personality that is different, but rather the speaker’s perception of life. The persona claims “[he had] not seen / as others saw” because he believes that his perception of common occurrences is distorted compared to others (2-3). This leads to the speaker feeling “alone” in everything that he lives for when in reality all people have different emotional triggers and impressions of certain experiences.