Poe’s poem is thought to addressed to Frances Osgood, a prominent poet in New York with whom Poe famously flirted – probably platonically -- for several years. The gist of the poem is fairly clear: the poet must follow a “drear path” through his life’s struggles, and the only “solace” he has is in his dreams of his beloved. The second stanza goes on to further develop the idea of “F.” as refuge. The poet imagines her as a beautiful island, cut off from the world by stormy seas, yet nevertheless enjoying “serenest skies.” Characteristically (for Poe), the beloved is less an actual woman than an idea, or feeling; his love for her has less to do with any aspect of her character than how his memory of her is soothing his nervous disposition.
Poe's poem "To F--" is a love poem. The poem's narrator is beset by "earnest woes." His life moves along a "drear path" whose bleak vista is brightened not even with "one lonely rose." The only relief the narrator finds is in dreams of his beloved, the young lady known to us solely by the initial F. Poe tells us nothing of his beloved's physical appearance or personality traits; we are not privy to experiences they might have shared. What we do know is how F makes the narrator feel. And that is accomplished largely through the use of metaphor.
The second stanza of the poem describes F as an "enchanted, far-off isle" anchored in a "tumultuous sea." Clearly, life is full of tumult and angst for the narrator, as seen in the storm-tossed sea imagery. His only respite lies in the persona of F, whom he pictures as an island of serenity, smiled over by the "serenest skies."
Poe's narrator pictures life as bleak and full of problems. It is only through love, specifically in the form of F, that the narrator finds solace and respite.
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