VOICE ONE:
October Thirty-First is Halloween.It is an unofficial holiday that celebrates the frightening andstrange. We celebrate with a report about a nineteenth-centuryAmerican writer. His stories were some of the most frightening andstrange ever written. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson. The writer Edgar Allan Poe is our reporttoday on the VOA Special English program THIS IS AMERICA.
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VOICE ONE:
Halloween is mostly a holiday forchildren, who like to be frightened. Yet many grown people observeHalloween, too. Those who love the writings of Edgar Allan Poe thinkHalloween is the best time of year to celebrate them. Poe is mostfamous for his stories and poems of strangeness, mystery, andterror.
He wrote about people buried while still alive. About insanityand death. About dreams that become real … or reality that seemslike a dream.
VOICE TWO:
Edgar Allan Poe died in the city of Baltimore inEighteen-Forty-Nine. Now, in that city, an unusual party takes placeevery Halloween.
In the dark of night, visitors go to the church ground where Poeis buried. Everything is quiet. Then a voice calls out. It is Poe!(pause) No, it is just an actor, reading Poe’s work.
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VOICE ONE:
Reading stories was one of the most important forms of enjoymentin Edgar Allan Poe’s time. Poe created many of these “short”stories. They appeared in different publications.
Horror stories already were popular when Poe began writing.Critics say he wrote the perfect horror story.
Poe also wrote detective stories. These were mysteries aboutcrimes, such as murder. The mysteries are solved by an investigatorcalled a detective. He or she is able to find important, hiddenmeanings in facts.
The horror and detective stories Poe created remain extremelypopular in books and movies.
VOICE TWO:
Edgar Allan Poe’s work is not easy to read. His language isdifficult to understand today. And most of his writing describesvery unpleasant situations and events.
His story “The Pit and the Pendulum,” for example, is about themental torture of a prisoner. Each time the prisoner saves himselffrom death, a new and more horrible form of death threatens him.
Another story is “The Masque of the Red Death.” In it, a terribledisease — the Red Death — has killed half the population of acountry.
The ruler of the country shuts his castle against the disease. Heand his wealthy friends are inside. They pass the time by havingparties. They believe the Red Death will not find them. But it does.
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VOICE ONE:
Edgar Poe was born in Eighteen-Oh-Nine. His parents were actors.At that time, actors were not accepted by the best society. Edgarwas a baby when his father left the family. He was two years oldwhen his mother died. He was taken into the home of a wealthybusinessman, John Allan. He then received his new name — EdgarAllan Poe.
John Allan never officially made Edgar his son. In fact, he cameto dislike him strongly.
As a young man, Edgar attended the University of Virginia. He wasa good student. But he liked to drink alcohol and play card gamesfor money. Edgar was not a good player. He lost money he did nothave. John Allan refused to pay Edgar’s gambling losses. So, Edgarleft the university. He began working as a writer and editor formonthly magazines.
VOICE TWO:
Edgar Allan Poe worked hard. He became a successful editor. Yethe was not well-paid or well-known. His life was difficult. He waspoor, and he was troubled by sicknesses of the body and mind.
Poe suffered from depression. He feared he was insane. He drankalcohol to escape his fears. The alcohol had a very bad effect onhim.
VOICE ONE:
At the age of twenty-seven, he married Virginia Clemm. She wasthe daughter of his father’s sister. She was only thirteen yearsold. For a time, it seemed that Poe would find some happiness. Buthis wife was sick for most of their marriage. She died inEighteen-Forty-Seven. Poe died two years later, at the age of forty.He was found dead in Baltimore after days of heavy drinking.
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VOICE TWO:
Through all his crises, Edgar Allan Poe produced many stories,poems, and works of criticism. Some of his stories won prizes. Yethe did not become famous until Eighteen-Forty-Five. That was whenhis poem “The Raven” was published.
There is no question that Poe suffered from emotional problems inhis life. One critic said Poe’s spirit was torn. He said Poe’sstories were often about his own divided nature. Each person in thestory showed a different side of the writer.
There is a question, however, about Poe’s importance. Somecritics say he was one of America’s best writers. Others disagree.
VOICE ONE:
Critic Vincent Buranelli says Poe discovered a new artisticuniverse. It is a universe of dreams. It is a place where the linebetween reality and unreality is extremely thin.
Even those who praise Poe agree that there are many difficultiesin his work. These difficulties place Poe’s writing outside the mainbody of American literature. Most American writing is realistic.Poe’s interests and way of writing were not realistic at all.
Poe’s work has been praised most in France. He had a greatinfluence on many French writers, including the poets Charles-PierreBaudelaire and Stephane Mallarme.
VOICE TWO:
Poe’s best-known poem is “The Raven.” Some people love it. Theysay it is like music. Others hate it. They say it sounds forced andunnatural — like bad music.
“The Raven” is about a man whose great love, Lenore, has died.She is gone forever. But the man cannot accept that all happiness isgone. He sits alone among his books late at night. He hears a noiseat the window. Here is the beginning of the poem:
ANNOUNCER:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered,
weak and weary
Over many a quaint and curious volume of for-
gotten lore —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there
came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door.
“Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my
chamber door —
Only this and nothing more.”
VOICE TWO:
The man looks out the window and sees only blackness.
ANNOUNCER:
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there
wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared
to dream before:
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness
gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered
word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the
word, “Lenore!”
Merely this and nothing more.
VOICE TWO:
But there is something at the window. It is a large black bird –a raven. It comes into the room like the spirit of death andhopelessness. The raven can speak just one word: ‘nevermore’ –meaning ‘never again’. We know the raven will never leave the man’sroom.
ANNOUNCER:
But the Raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust,
spoke only
That one word, as if his soul in that one word he
did outpour.
Nothing farther than he uttered — not a feather
then he fluttered —
Till I scarcely more than muttered, “Other friends
have flown before —
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes
have flown before.”
Then the bird said, “Nevermore.”
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Carolyn Weaver. It was produced byLawan Davis. Our poetry reader was Shep O’Neal. I’m ShirleyGriffith.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Doug Johnson. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English programTHIS IS AMERICA.