P O E
P O E
For years now a heavy, black, gold-leafed tome filled with the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe has rested on a Grecian pedestal in my home. Poe is definitely one of my favorite writers. He summoned, effortlessly, nightmarish visions from the dark world that was his mind. And for all the goosebumps he’s given me over the years, I respect him (I don’t scare easily). I remember after weeks of drab poetry in Junior High, my literature teacher said, “Today we’re going to read ‘The Raven‘ by Edgar Allan Poe. As my eyes poured over the somber words of love lost, my mind was transported to a massive, chamber door and I could hear the dull pound of someone “rapping” and the voice of the raven pirched on a limb nearby, saying, “Nevermore.” I remember thinking “..and we’re required to read this?..There is a God!”
Poe celebrated his 200th birthday in 2009 and the world celebrated with him. Festivities praising the man and his work were held in the author’s birthplace Boston, Massachusettes, as well as, Richmond, Virginia, where he lived with his foster parents. Believe it or not, the two cities fought over which one owned the rights to his corpse, with one city threatening to have his body exumed from its resting place and transplanted! (That’s pretty sick shit..Poe would’ve loved it!) The celebrations stretched across the waters to places as far away as Russia and Japan!
The brilliant, but troubled, author left us with some exquisitely terrifying tales of mystery and the macabre and some wonderfully dismal and edgy poetry in his short 40 years on the planet. Poe is credited with fathering the modern science fiction/horror genre. His work provided an atmosphere that has deeply impacted the dark side of modern media, inspiring a plethora of scary movies, band names, and melancholy songs. Where would the goth and emo culture be today without his moody inspiration? (Cutting yourself to Ralph Waldo Emerson just wouldn’t have the same effect). Poe’s writing influenced the works of Jules Verne, Paul Valery, Charles Baudelaire, and renowned illustrator Gustav Dore, among many others of his own time. Poe was one of the first to write short stories and his recurring detective character, Dupin (Murders In the Rue Morgue), actually influenced the development of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most notable sleuth, Sherlock Holmes.
He was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusettes to parents who were seasoned thespians. He was most likely named after a character from King Lear. The name “Allan” would be added by his foster parents, the Allans, who were wealthy Virginia merchants.
Poe’s parents died when he was young. His mother died of consumption and he would later lose a string of loved ones to the same plague, including his foster mother, his older brother and his young wife, Virginia. No doubt, the trend of tragic loss that began so early for Poe would set the gloomy tone of death and darkness in so much of his writing. Some literary critics have even connected the color red and the presence of blood in many of Poe’s stories, such as Masque of the Red Death, with the coughing up of blood that would have accompanied the terrible condition that stole away those he loved from this world one after another.
Poe was a student of the human condition; an avid lover of psychology. Poe’s horror classics are curiously devoid of monsters because the author found the human monster to be a far more interesting subject. His tales are often told from the demented perspective of murderers or otherwise deviant narrators. Common elements in Poe’s themes are alcoholism and strange phobias like taphophobia, the fear of being buried alive. He considered the human psyche to be a landscape sufficiently haunted to serve as a setting for his sinister tales.
In the preface to his book, The Raven and Other Poems, Poe wrote: “With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not – they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.” In his lifetime, Poe enjoyed a mere $6,200.oo for his extensive body of work and all his success as a writer.
Loneliness and depression plagued Poe and he attempted suicide in 1848. His short life came to an end the following year. The circumstances of his death were as mysterious as the setting of his detective stories. Poe left for Richmond to visit his fiancee, but disappeared after a drink at a birthday party. He never made it to Richmond, but was found in a Baltimore tavern 6 days later, instead. He was delirious and fatally ill. Poe died days later and no one ever uncovered the clues that would’ve explained his bizarre detour and the missing events leading up to his early demise.
Rest In Peace Mr. Poe, you still scare the hell out of us! Your work here is done.
My favorite Poe stories are his beloved classics: The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Mask of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher. My favorite Poe poems are: Annabel Lee, A Dream Within A Dream, The Conqueror Worm and, of course, The Raven.
Moral of the story my sweet little “darqlings,” I love Poe, so read him or die!! Just kidding..maybe.
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