Hi I'm in year 12 and have to write a speech on the validity of literary canons in the senior curriculum. I also have to refer to one particular canon and I have chosen Edgar Allan Poe, but in order to refer to him I need to be able to understand what his poems mean and at the moment I don't. So i was hoping that someone would be able to tell me the meanings of "Alone", "A dream", "Fairy-land" and "The happiest day". Also, any tips on what I should talk about in my speech would be most helpful.
I'm not sure what is meant by the validity of a literary canon (and can it be a person? [www.victorianweb.org]), but here is the best Poe site I have found: