Happy Birthday, Mr. Poe!
We hope you enjoyed our Poe extravaganza issue of READ this month. I know we certainly enjoyed putting it together for you. The best part, for me, was getting to interview the man. He had a lot to say and it was really quite an honor to get to speak to him. It's not that often that we get an audience with such a famous dead author. Yes, dead. Mr. Poe is dead. Long live Mr. Poe!
It has been 157 years and 3 months since Edgar Allan Poe has walked the face of the earth. But who's counting, right? Well, even though it's been so long, here's one guy (or gal?) who certainly hasn't forgotten the master of macabre.
A toast! To Mr. Edgar Allan Poe!A man of whom I never did knowIn life, although I did pretendTo meet the man to meet READ's endsSuch is the stuff of silly. I never was a good poet. Wait a minute... POEt? Surely this can't be coincidental! When Edgar (Don't Call Me "Allen") Poe wasn't busy writing the most gruesome and terrifying of stories, he bided his creative time by penning such masterpieces as The Raven, and Annabel Lee (both of which you can read in the current issue of READ). Although Mr. Poe was (and is, and always will be) revered as a great and classic poet, he once was noted as saying, "Most of those who hold high places in our poetical literature are absolute nincompoops." Oh Poe. Oh dear, sweet Edgar Allan Poe.
One of my favorite POEms, is a short little diddy. It goes like so...In visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed- But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day To him whose eyes are cast On things around him with a ray Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream- that holy dream, While all the world were chiding, Hath cheered me as a lovely beam A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night, So trembled from afar- What could there be more purely bright In Truth's day-star?
Ahh. Sigh. Now I have lost my train of thought. That can happen upon reading such a work of art. What would you name this poem? I would name it "A Dream". It's simple. It conveys all. It works. Oh wait. That's what it's called. Gee golly Poe was a smart one! All right then, since I don't want to steal his idea, I guess I'll say that I would call this poem, "Stanley." No no no.
What else? What else? Well, there's TONS of Poe information in our READ issue. Have I mentioned our READ issue yet? It's all about Poe.
"Who?""Poe.""Who?""Edgar Allan Poe." "Oh. Poe. Why didn't you say so?""D'oh!"
Oh hey! OK, so I'm obviously running out of ideas here. That's OK. I've got one more for ya. Although the interview with Mr. Poe in READ magazine is mostly complete and uncut, due to lack of space, there was one question and, subsequently, one answer that was omitted. Hey, lucky you for stopping by here at WORD today! You get the backstage pass! I leave you now with this all too important dialogue:
Me: Soooo, Mr. Poe, tell me, what's death like?Poe: Trust me brother, keep on livin'....And then he jumped on his Harley, nailed a killer sweet jump, and rode off into the sunset...
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