The Political Thought of Edgar Allan Poe

By |2024-01-18T15:16:50-06:00January 18th, 2024|Categories: Democracy, Edgar Allan Poe, Timeless Essays|

Edgar Allan Poe vigorously denounced the Jeffersonian ideal of democracy. He had no sympathy with abstract political notions such as those which had produced liberal republican theory in America and elsewhere. Like Edmund Burke, Poe was highly suspicious of the “well-constructed Republic.” The opinion has been often stated that Edgar Allan Poe was bizarre and [...]

“The Fall of the House of Usher”

By |2023-10-07T14:55:32-05:00October 7th, 2023|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

Son cœur est un luth suspendu; Sitôt qu’on le touche il rèsonne. De Béranger. DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at [...]

Edgar Allan Poe & the Mask of the 20th Century

By |2023-10-06T20:30:44-05:00October 6th, 2023|Categories: Beauty, Culture, Edgar Allan Poe, Literature, Timeless Essays|

The name Edgar Allan Poe conjures images of the macabre, murder, insanity, and self-destruction, but is this the real Edgar Poe? BUT for the cruel aspersions upon the character and life of America’s poetic genius, EDGAR ALLAN POE, this volume would have remained unwritten. EDGAR ALLAN POE has been more misunderstood than any other poet [...]

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” & Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

By |2023-04-19T16:29:28-05:00April 19th, 2023|Categories: Death, Edgar Allan Poe, Literature, Timeless Essays|Tags: |

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is thematically applicable to much of Poe’s work—the struggle to see the light of truth and justice that shines at the end of a dark tunnel of violence and horror. Edgar Allan Poe was missing. The year was 1849. There had been no trace of Mr. Poe for six [...]

How Edgar Allan Poe Ensured That Gothic Stories Will Never Die

By |2024-01-14T20:11:42-06:00January 18th, 2023|Categories: Christine Norvell, Edgar Allan Poe, Fiction, Imagination, Literature, Senior Contributors, Timeless Essays|

At the same time that writers were bringing depth of character to the gothic setting in the 19th century, Edgar Allan Poe revitalized the genre in mid-century America. Suddenly Tales of Horror had a distinctly American flair and a surprising psychological depth. This nuance captivated readers then and still does today. Two hundred and fifty [...]

“The Premature Burial”

By |2020-11-13T02:33:10-06:00November 12th, 2020|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

And now, amid all my infinite miseries, came sweetly the cherub Hope—for I thought of my precautions. I writhed, and made spasmodic exertions to force open the lid: it would not move. I felt my wrists for the bell-rope: it was not to be found. And now the Comforter fled for ever, and a still [...]

“The Black Cat”

By |2023-10-12T18:06:06-05:00October 30th, 2020|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

This cat followed my footsteps with a pertinacity which it would be difficult to make the reader comprehend. At such times, although I longed to destroy it with a blow, I was yet withheld from so doing, partly by a memory of my former crime, but chiefly—let me confess it at once—by absolute dread of [...]

“The Cask of Amontillado”

By |2020-10-15T14:14:49-05:00October 15th, 2020|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge. You, who so well know the nature of my soul, will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a threat. At length I would be avenged; this was a point definitely settled—but the very definitiveness [...]

“The Tell-Tale Heart”

By |2023-07-26T18:30:49-05:00October 6th, 2020|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

True! --nervous --very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses --not destroyed --not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in [...]

“Sonnet — To Science”

By |2020-08-12T01:04:58-05:00August 11th, 2020|Categories: Edgar Allan Poe, Poetry, Science|

Science! true daughter of Old Time thou art! Who alterest all things with thy peering eyes. Why prey’st thou thus upon the poet’s heart, Vulture, whose wings are dull realities? How should he love thee? or how deem thee wise, Who wouldst not leave him in his wandering To seek for treasure in the jewelled [...]

“Berenice”

By |2022-10-06T13:12:03-05:00July 1st, 2020|Categories: Audio/Video, Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

The eyes were lifeless, and lustreless, and I shrunk involuntarily from their glassy stare to the contemplation of the thin and shrunken lips. They parted: and, in a smile of peculiar meaning, the teeth of the changed Berenice disclosed themselves slowly to my view. Would to God that I had never beheld them, or that, [...]

Edgar Allan Poe’s Metaphysics: Rediscovering “Eureka”

By |2021-06-29T23:32:08-05:00June 23rd, 2020|Categories: Art, Beauty, Books, Edgar Allan Poe, Imagination, Literature, Reason|

Many details of Edgar Allan Poe’s scientific treatment of the universe in “Eureka” have flaws which we may today see as errors. However, the value of this masterpiece lies primarily in the concise method of fruitful thinking showcased throughout and the broad universal principles of order, beauty, goodness, and creativity which Poe makes intelligible to [...]

The Six Hoaxes of Edgar Allan Poe

By |2023-08-24T19:31:45-05:00May 29th, 2020|Categories: Culture, Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

Edgar Allan Poe approvingly called his time the “epoch of the hoax.” During his lifetime he would attempt a total of six different hoaxes. Even though Poe’s motives may seem odd or obscure, his hoaxes live on as a quirky and fascinating part of literary history. The origins of April Fools’ Day are unclear. Some [...]

“Ligeia”

By |2020-10-07T08:50:53-05:00May 28th, 2020|Categories: Audio/Video, Edgar Allan Poe, Literature|

Shrinking from my touch, she let fall from her head, unloosened, the ghastly cerements which had confined it, and there streamed forth into the rushing atmosphere of the chamber huge masses of long and disheveled hair; it was blacker than the raven wings of midnight. And now slowly opened the eyes of the figure which [...]

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