EDGAR ALLAN POE: mystery and imagination

Edgar Allan Poe wrote stories and poems of mystery , terror, insanity and death. His life was short and seemingly unhappy.  He is also remembered for the kind of literature known as detective fiction which  are stories of an investigator who has to solve murders and other crimes. In fact, he is considered the father of the modern detective novel.

He´s got lots of popular short stories. Some of my favourite ones are "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue".
Another popular one is THE TELL-TALE HEART, which is the story we are going to work with . It is quite short but it is a very good investigation of a man´s paranoia. In this story we have a very good analysis of a "murderer" who is portrayed  in a grotesque way, like a beast. Let´s read the story ad focus on the narrator so that you can explain to  me  why I am writing this.
In these links you can have access to the story and audio. Read and listen to the story story at the same time.
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_01_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_02_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_03_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_04_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_05_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_06_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_07_heart.htm
http://www.loudlit.org/audio/heart/pages/01_08_heart.htm

Here below, there´s also an animation you can have a look at so that you can feel the uneasy situation the narrator describes.

Once you have read the story and watched the animation try to answer the following questions:
1. The narrator was annoyed by the old man's ____________
2. The killer knew the old man was dead when he could no longer hear the old man's __________ .
3. For many nights, the killer didn't harm the old man. He only _____________ .
4. From this story, we can assume that the killer is ____________  and as a reader what do you think or what does the narrator want you to think about him?
5. The murderer hid his victim's body _______________ .
6. This story is mainly about ___________________ . Try to summarize  it in 2 or 3 lines.

POE is not only famous for his short stories. His poems are brilliant too. The Raven is considered a masterpiece and we are going to try to make an approach to it so that you can understand it more easily.I In this poem we have the spooky and mysterious image that Poe loves.


Watch this video and listen to the poem.  It can be a little bit difficult because it includes many words you may not know  and some of them are not nearly used nowadays. Apart from that, the poem is very rich in literary devices:
- Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words.
- Assonance - the repetition of vowel sounds, usually within words.
- Internal rhyme - the rhyming of words within a line of poetry, not just at the end of the lines.

There´s also The Simpson´s version with subtitles in Spanish


 Answer the following questions:

1. What´s the rhyme of the poem? Rhymes are very important in this poem because with them Poe makes his poem more musical, hypnotic and captivating. If you understand the rhymes and rhythm you´ll understand the poem much better. Which words rhyme in each line?

2. What´s the atmosphere of the poem?

3. Which words reinforce the idea of fear, anxiety, darkness?

4. Could you describe the room where the action takes place? what kind of adjectives would you use?

5. Who´s is Leonor and what kind of relation did she have with the narrator?

6. What do you think the presence of the raven means?

7. Write a summary of the poem.