“Oh Woe Is Poe”
Edgar Allan Poe has always been my favorite author. He’s infamously creepy, but he’s still my favorite. In fact it’s because Poe nearly always sets a dark, eerie tone to his poems and stories that I favor him. No, I’m not a lonely, depressed recluse and no I’m not a pessimist or negative-thinker by nature. The thing that attracts me to Poe’s writing isn’t the gloom or the tragedy. (Unless I’m in a misery-loves-company mood.) What attracts me is his incredible ability to use exactly the right words to create an undeniable atmosphere of doom long before any misfortune actually strikes! From the very first sentence, Poe displays his mastery of the English language. His word choice is absolutely perfect. Somehow each selection builds upon the others in such a way that suspense and anticipation grow quickly — and uncomfortably. So much so that you’re hooked almost instantly! You have to read the story! You have to find out why the hair on the back of your neck is standing up just because there’s a little knock on the stupid door! Or in Poe’s words … “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. `’Tis some visitor,’ I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door – Only this, and nothing more.” Yikes!