Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849

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Edgar Allan Poe1809-1849

• English 11
• American Literature
• Mr. Cooper

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Brainstorm

• What do you already know about Edgar Allan Poe?
• What do you think you know about Edgar Allan Poe?
• What have you read by him? (Or have you seen any
  visual adaptations of his work?)

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Life of Edgar Allan Poe

• Born in Boston in 1809
• Son of travelling actors
• Parents died when he was three he was taken in
  by a wealthy tobacco merchant
• Went to University of Virginia, but was so poor
  he had to burn furniture to keep warm his
  stepfather refused to pay off Poes gambling
  debts

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Life of Edgar Allan Poe

• Went to West Point thrown out after a year
• Supported himself as a writer (one of the first
  authors in American history to do so)
• Broke and alone, Poe moved to Baltimore to live
  with his fathers familywhere he was robbed by
  his cousin
• Started publishing short stories, and began to
  earn good money

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Life of Edgar Allan Poe

• Moved to New York and married his 13-year-old
  fiancé, Virginia Clemm
• Virginia died in Fordham in 1847 at 24 years old
• Poe died two years later the circumstances of
  his death still remain a mystery

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Famous Works

• The Raven
• The Fall of the House of Usher
• The Tell-Tale Heart
• The Masque of the Red Death
• The Cask of Amontillado

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The Single Effect

• Poe is responsible for the emergence of the
  short story as a popular and respected literary
  form (The American Experience, p. 193)
• He believed that a story should be constructed to
  achieve a certain unique or single effect.

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The Single Effect

• In the whole composition there should be no word
  written, of which the tendency, direct or
  indirect, is not to the one preestablished
  design.
• I say to myself, in the first place, Of the
  innumerable effects, or impressions, of which the
  heart, the intellect, or (more generally) the
  soul is susceptible, what one shall I, on the
  present occasion, select?

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The Raven

• Published in 1845
• One of Poes most famous poems
• Famous for the repeated word, Nevermore
• Sound devices
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Consonance
• Internal Rhyme

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The Raven

• Page 209 in your textbook
• YouTube Video reading of The Raven by James
  Earl Jones
• The Interactive Raven

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Your Response

• What stood out to you? Select three excerpts
  from the poem that had some effect on you.
• Homework Response to each excerpt discuss Poes
  use of a literary element in each excerpt.