In Issue 9, New York, New Life, we asked students to write to us about their neighborhoods. Here is one response.

When I was eleven, I went over to Branford Manor with my Mom to see her friend. I wandered off to our old apartment. While I was standing on my old step, I enjoyed a memory, one that I know will stay with me; the memory of Cops and Robbers. I spotted a few other children playing the game. I joined them and just left after about five minutes because it just wasn't the same. Everybody who played when I was younger no longer lived in that area.

One of the most impressive aspects of Edgar Allan Poe's storytelling is his ability to enhance the mood and tone with the use of repetitious sound. Examples of his auditory excellence shine through in two of his most famous works: "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart."

Poe brings to the reader's attention the character of the infamous Raven through the rapping and tapping of the chamber door. Sound not only introduces this antagonist, but is also the vehicle that drives the plot. In the poem, the Raven speaks only one word "nevermore" to the love-sick narrator who tries to gain some comfort about losing his beloved Lenore. The repetition of "nevermore" is so effective in creating tension that by the end of the poem the reader can assume the narrator is driven mad. But by who? Certainly, the sound of "nevermore" as an answer to every single question must have contributed!

Insanity is a welcomed state of mind for characters' of Poe. Much like The Raven's narrator, the sound of a heart beating incessantly is the means that drives an already insane protagonist to confession in, "The Tell-Tale Heart." This narrator describes how two policemen make a mockery of his explanation of late night noises, by ignoring the sound of a thumping heart growing louder and louder by the minute. Finally, the narrator explains that he is driven to admit his crime because he just can't believe the policemen's audacity in letting him continue with his story despite the "obvious" loud thumping below their feet. Once again, Poe creates brilliant tension from beginning to end by using the sound of a heart as a device and an antagonist.

Up for a little challenge? These aren't the only examples of Poe's ingenious employment of sound. Deep in the dark recesses of his library are the echoes of other inanimate insanity-driving antagonists. Can you uncover them?