about his poems and stories

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I would like to know; What were his more famous stories and poems? I would also like to know about his style or subject that he uses. If you could please answer back as soon as possible it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You Trevor ashford

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001

Answers

Failing access to a library any number of websites can easily give you a selection of favorites. www.eapoe.org has an extremely complete collection with variant texts and more about Poe.

Style? Very aural, erudite, poetic in the dark Romantic tradition. Brief for effect but profoundly moving within constrained limits. There seems always a touch of melancholy or horror even to many of his brighter works but he was not primarily a writer of scary stories or halloween poems. Rather he was involved personally in probing the dialectic between the rational and the supernatural, present reality and dreams of past and future. Supremely challenging situations absorbed his passions and mind. No small wonder then that one of his most original creations was the detective story. There is actually little of the outright bogeyman supernatural in his tales of terror. His literary criticism was a crusade against mediocrity and for a quality American literature. His theories ushered in a new wave of poetic symbolism and cast a gauntlet for the side of art for art's sake(not moral didacticism which should only be a byproduct if anything). The more you delve the more you can appreciate witht the benfit of Poe's small opus of relatively short works.

-- Anonymous, September 10, 2001


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