“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 someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.” – Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe published this unforgettable poem on this day in 1845. What a master storyteller and creator of chills. I wonder why so many geniuses had such brief and tragic lives.
Long ago, I memorized The Raven. I was fortunate to have an English teacher in high school who absolutely loved Edgar Allan Poe and who believed in the value of memorization. My senior English teacher also required memorizing poetry. I’m so glad they did.
Poe used words to shape stories and poetry as a potter uses clay to shape a figure. The sound of the words themselves send shivers up the spine. Words are the tools with which writers create. Each one is important.
Words create moods. I’d say that when Poe wrote The Raven, he was not in a happy frame of mind. His spirit was plumbing the depths of sadness and grief, and he expressed it beautifully. Words are tools, weapons, defenses. They can be healing, shocking, enemies or friends. Words are powerful.
I like to create a few shivers too, with the mysteries I write, but I also like to have happy endings and create a coziness of friends, coffee, and warmth. Not so with Mr. Poe.
We all have these weapons at our disposal. Sometimes words create gulfs that can never be breached and they can also build bridges of friendship. I have found much solace in words, balm for wounds, and have felt pierced through and through by words of a different caliber.
Another thing about words is that they are lasting. They may be written or spoken briefly, but their staying power is great. Although The Raven was published almost 200 years ago, it can still create a mood and cause a shiver or two to run down a spine. Poe gave a gift to the world with his writings and I’m so glad he did.
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