Today in history, in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe is discovered in
a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland. Under very mysterious circumstances, he was
found delirious. It would be the last time he would be seen in public. Poe is
considered a part of the American Romantic and Gothic Movements and nicknamed
the Father of the Detective Story. Though he was never a financial success in
his life, Poe has become of one America’s most enduring writers whose poems and
stories have captured by the imagination and interest of generations of readers
from around the world. His life and death would be clouded with mystery
seemingly mirroring his stories.
Poe’s most famous poem is, of course, The Raven. Published in 1845, it portrays a supernatural atmosphere
in which a talking raven mysteriously visits a distraught man, lamenting about
the loss of his love, Lenore. The poem traces the man’s descent into madness.
Sitting on a bust of Pallas (also known as Athena, the Greek goddess of
wisdom), the raven further the man’s distress with the constant repeating of
“Nevermore.” My favorite rendition of The Raven was portrayed by The Simpson’s
Halloween special The Treehouse of Horror (October 25, 1990). Another of Poe’s
poem would be his last, Annabel Lee
(1849), tells of one man’s love for the beautiful Annabel Lee even after her
death. The story of the two fell in love in a kingdom by the sea with a love so
strong that it made the angels envious. A love so strong that it extends beyond
the grace with their souls forever entwined. He dreams of her every night as he
lies by her side, at her tomb by the sea. These two poems are my favorite of
Poe’s poems. Imagines of what overwhelming grief can do to someone’s mental
health.
While many people are more familiar with The Raven, Poe was wrote many detective
stories featuring C. Auguste Dupin. Dupin is considered the first fictional
detective who displays many traits as other famous fictional detectives as Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes (first appearance in 1887) and Agatha
Christie’s Hercule Poirot (first appearance in 1920). The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) is recognized as the first
modern detective story which Poe referred to as one of his “tales of
ratiocination” (French for reasoning). In this story, Dupin must solve the murders
of two women which witnesses heard but didn’t recognize the language and a hair
which doesn’t appear to be human. The
Mystery of Marie Roget (1842) is the first story to be based on the details
of a real crime. The murder of Mary Cecilia Rogers was the inspiration, who was
found in the Hudson River in July 1841 after a mysterious disappearance. A
third story, The Purloined Letter (1844),
was the last to feature Dupin and a case about a stolen letter from inside a
locked office.
Everyone is familiar with Poe’s horror stories. One of the
most famous, The Tell Tale Heart
(1843) tells the story of a man who commits a premeditated murder, dismembers
the body and hides it under the floorboards. His guilt is manifested by the auditory
hallucinations of the dead man’s beating heart. The Cask of Amontillado (1846) is a story that I read in middle
school about a man who seeks revenge on a friend, who he believes has insulted
him. He seals his friend inside a catacomb underneath an Italian city. The Masque of the Red Death (1842) is a
story of a prince’s desperate attempts to avoid a dangerous plague that he and
other nobles hide in his abbey. The story takes place during a masquerade ball
in which a mysterious figure dressed as a Red Death victim enter and makes his
way among them.
After the death of his wife, Virginia in 1847, Poe began to
suffer poor health and struggled financially. His final days are a mystery. He
left Richmond, Virginia on September 27, 1849, supposedly on his way to
Philadelphia. He would turn up in Baltimore on October 3rd. He was taken to Washington College Hospital
where he would die on October 7th with his last words, “Lord, help
my poor soul.” There are many theories about the cause of death: “congestion of
the brain,” alcoholism, rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning. The
mystery of his death only adds to the mystery and haunting themes of his poems
and stories. If you are not familiar with Edgar Allan Poe’s poems and short stories,
I highly recommend reading them, especially during the spookiness of Halloween.
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