I need help on a paper about Poe's poetry and it resulting in modern americas facination with horror. Any help would be terrific

-- Anonymous, November 25, 2002

Answers

The mere fact of the international success of "The Raven" propelled American poetry, Poe and the spooky poem of course to the forefront. There were other poems and tales than Poe's. The Gothic was big then. certainly people told spooky tales themselves. Poe's genius legitimized, Americanized and raised the genre to a pinnacle. Most readers who never get the deeper significance of the poem or the simple angst of the narrator succumb to the mood of horror.

-- Anonymous, November 26, 2002