Edgar+Allan+Poe+is+203!

Edgar Allan Poe - America's 1st Short Story Writer! - Our stories - [|The Cask of Amontillado], [|The Tell Tale Heart], [|The Black Cat]

He turned 203 on January 19th of 2012. ....What you may not know, the "Poe Toaster" was an anonymous person who visited Poe's grave in Baltimore each year, sometime after midnight on the 19th of January, to leave a 1/2 5th of Cognac (brandy) and a rose at the at the foot of the headstone. The Museum nearby, was never able to "catch" the person in the act. The Toaster, whoever he or she was, had done so for nearly half a century. Accordingly, and without notice, for the past three years, the "toaster to Poe" has not visited. It is now assumed that he or she is also dead.

Edgar Allan Poe gravesite tribute: let it die
For the second straight year, the [|mysterious visitor failed to show up] at the Baltimore grave of [|Edgar Allan Poe.] Since 1949, the "Poe Toaster" had marked the great author's Jan. 19 birthday by leaving roses and cognac at the grave outside [|Westminster Hall.] But that tradition ended last year, amid speculation that the toaster had died. Jeff Jerome, curator of the [|Poe House,] dutifully opened the burial grounds gates last night, and several would-be toasters showed up, but none fit the profile of the real one, the Baltimore Sun reported. Jerome said he would open the gates one more year, and if the toaster didn't show up, he would let the tradition die. "If it is over, let it die a noble death." Well said, Jeff. the worst thing that could happen, in this era of reality-TV stunts, would be for the tradition to become a made-for-prime-time spectacle. //AP photo//

//Short Story Posts: Choose from the Following reactions on these classic Poe tales://

//A. SYMBOLISM: Explain the use of the "EYE" in these two stories, relating it to modern references.//



//B. The Cask of Amontillado - IRONY// //Think about the verbal irony in this story. Pulling from each of Montresor's statements below, which could all be considered ironic, describe what is ironic about what Montresor says - three paragraphs.// "Enough," he said; "the cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough" "True-true," I replied, but you should use all proper caution."

"I drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around us." "And I to your long life."

"Once more let me //implore// you to return. No? Then I must positively leave you."



C. Modern Connection: How might Poe's Imagination view the "tell-tale" heart in the 21st Century? Modern Forensics? Crime Solving? DNA? Society's views on End-of-life issues?

The Tell-Tale Heart 1. Re-read the first paragraph of "Tell-tale Heart" - use the link at the top of this page to access the PDF. What does it tell us about the narrator? What later event will it foreshadow? 2. Look through the story and find 4 times, when the narrator insists he is not mad. Hoe does he seem to define madness? 3. Is the reader meant to agree with the narrator, when he says he is not mad? How do you know? 4. In Paragraph 18 - the narrator says the officers "chatted pleasantly, and smiled." Do you think the officers would agree with this description? If you were an officer on a call at 4 a.m. listening to this narrator, what might you be thinking? 5. List two things that could be different if this story was told by the murder victim, speaking from the afterlife. This was a technique used in the Sebold book, Lovely Bones, possibly you saw the movie?