biography of edgar allan poe answer key

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer and critic famous for his dark, mysterious poems and stories, including “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?

Quick facts, army and west point, writing career as a critic and poet, poems: “the raven” and “annabel lee”, short stories, legacy and museum.

FULL NAME: Edgar Allan Poe BORN: January 19, 1809 DIED: October 7, 1849 BIRTHPLACE: Boston, Massachusetts SPOUSE: Virginia Clemm Poe (1836-1847) ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Capricorn

Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe on January 19, 1809, in Boston. Edgar never really knew his biological parents: Elizabeth Arnold Poe, a British actor, and David Poe Jr., an actor who was born in Baltimore. His father left the family early in Edgar’s life, and his mother died from tuberculosis when he was only 2.

Separated from his brother, William, and sister, Rosalie, Poe went to live with his foster parents, John and Frances Allan, in Richmond, Virginia. John was a successful tobacco merchant there. Edgar and Frances seemed to form a bond, but he had a more difficult relationship with John.

By age 13, Poe was a prolific poet, but his literary talents were discouraged by his headmaster and by John, who preferred that young Edgar follow him in the family business. Preferring poetry over profits, Poe reportedly wrote poems on the back of some of Allan’s business papers.

Money was also an issue between Poe and John. Poe went to the University of Virginia in 1826, where he excelled in his classes. However, he didn’t receive enough money from John to cover all of his costs. Poe turned to gambling to cover the difference but ended up in debt.

He returned home only to face another personal setback—his neighbor and fiancée Sarah Elmira Royster had become engaged to someone else. Heartbroken and frustrated, Poe moved to Boston.

In 1827, around the time he published his first book, Poe joined the U.S. Army. Two years later, he learned that his mother, Frances, was dying of tuberculosis, but by the time he returned to Richmond, she had already died.

While in Virginia, Poe and his father briefly made peace with each other, and John helped Poe get an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Poe excelled at his studies at West Point, but he was kicked out after a year for his poor handling of his duties.

During his time at West Point, Poe had fought with John, who had remarried without telling him. Some have speculated that Poe intentionally sought to be expelled to spite his father, who eventually cut ties with Poe.

After leaving West Point, Poe published his third book and focused on writing full-time. He traveled around in search of opportunity, living in New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. In 1834, John Allan died, leaving Poe out of his will, but providing for an illegitimate child Allan had never met.

Poe, who continued to struggle living in poverty, got a break when one of his short stories won a contest in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter . He began to publish more short stories and, in 1835, landed an editorial position with the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. Poe developed a reputation as a cut-throat critic, writing vicious reviews of his contemporaries. His scathing critiques earned him the nickname the “Tomahawk Man.”

His tenure at the magazine proved short, however. Poe’s aggressive reviewing style and sometimes combative personality strained his relationship with the publication, and he left the magazine in 1837. His problems with alcohol also played a role in his departure, according to some reports.

Poe went on to brief stints at Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine , Graham’s Magazine , as well as The Broadway Journal , and he also sold his work to Alexander’s Weekly Messenger , among other journals.

In 1844, Poe moved to New York City. There, he published a news story in The New York Sun about a balloon trip across the Atlantic Ocean that he later revealed to be a hoax. His stunt grabbed attention, but it was his publication of “The Raven,” in 1845, that made Poe a literary sensation.

That same year, Poe found himself under attack for his stinging criticisms of fellow poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow . Poe claimed that Longfellow, a widely popular literary figure, was a plagiarist, which resulted in a backlash against Poe.

Despite his success and popularity as a writer, Poe continued to struggle financially, and he advocated for higher wages for writers and an international copyright law.

Poe self-published his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems , in 1827. His second poetry collection, Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems , was published in 1829.

As a critic at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond from 1835 to 1837, Poe published some of his own works in the magazine, including two parts of his only novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym . Later on came poems such as “Ulalume” and “The Bells.”

“The Raven”

Poe’s poem “The Raven,” published in 1845 in the New York Evening Mirror , is considered among the best-known poems in American literature and one of the best of Poe’s career. An unknown narrator laments the demise of his great love Lenore and is visited by a raven, who insistently repeats one word: “Nevermore.” In the work, which consists of 18 six-line stanzas, Poe explored some of his common themes: death and loss.

“Annabel Lee”

This lyric poem again explores Poe’s themes of death and loss and might have been written in memory of his beloved wife, Virginia, who died two years prior its publication. The poem was published on October 9, 1849, two days after Poe’s death, in the New York Tribune .

In late 1830s, Poe published Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque , a collection of short stories. It contained several of his most spine-tingling tales, including “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Ligeia,” and “William Wilson.”

In 1841, Poe launched the new genre of detective fiction with “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” His literary innovations earned him the nickname “Father of the Detective Story.” A writer on the rise, he won a literary prize in 1843 for “The Gold Bug,” a suspenseful tale of secret codes and hunting treasure.

“The Black Cat”

Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” was published in 1843 in The Saturday Evening Post . In it, the narrator, a one-time animal lover, becomes an alcoholic who begins abusing his wife and black cat. By the macabre story’s end, the narrator observes his own descent into madness as he kills his wife, a crime his black cat reports to the police. The story was later included in the 1845 short story collection, Tales by Edgar Allan Poe .

Later in his career, Poe continued to work in different forms, examining his own methodology and writing in general in several essays, including “The Philosophy of Composition,” “The Poetic Principle,” and “The Rationale of Verse.” He also produced the thrilling tale, “The Cask of Amontillado.”

From 1831 to 1835, Poe lived in Baltimore, where his father was born, with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter Virginia. He began to devote his attention to Virginia; his cousin became his literary inspiration as well as his love interest. The couple married in 1836 when she was only 13 years old and he was 27.

In 1847, at the age of 24—the same age when Poe’s mother and brother also died—Virginia passed away from tuberculosis. Poe was overcome by grief following her death, and although he continued to work, he suffered from poor health and struggled financially until his death in 1849.

Poe died on October 7, 1849, in Baltimore at age 40.

His final days remain somewhat of a mystery. Poe left Richmond on ten days earlier, on September 27, and was supposedly on his way to Philadelphia. On October 3, he was found in Baltimore in great distress. Poe was taken to Washington College Hospital, where he died four days later. His last words were “Lord, help my poor soul.”

At the time, it was said that Poe died of “congestion of the brain.” But his actual cause of death has been the subject of endless speculation. Some experts believe that alcoholism led to his demise while others offer up alternative theories. Rabies, epilepsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning are just some of the conditions thought to have led to the great writer’s death.

Shortly after his passing, Poe’s reputation was badly damaged by his literary adversary Rufus Griswold. Griswold, who had been sharply criticized by Poe, took his revenge in his obituary of Poe, portraying the gifted yet troubled writer as a mentally deranged drunkard and womanizer. He also penned the first biography of Poe, which helped cement some of these misconceptions in the public’s minds.

Although Poe never had financial success in his lifetime, he has become one of America’s most enduring writers. His works are as compelling today as they were more than a century ago. An innovative and imaginative thinker, Poe crafted stories and poems that still shock, surprise, and move modern readers. His dark work influenced writers including Charles Baudelaire , Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Stephane Mallarme.

The Baltimore home where Poe stayed from 1831 to 1835 with his aunt Maria Clemm and her daughter, Poe’s cousin and future wife Virginia, is now a museum. The Edgar Allan Poe House offers a self-guided tour featuring exhibits on Poe’s foster parents, his life and death in Baltimore, and the poems and short stories he wrote while living there, as well as memorabilia including his chair and desk.

• The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world.
• Lord, help my poor soul.
• Sound loves to revel near a summer night.
• But as, in ethics, evil is a consequence of good, so, in fact, out of joy is sorrow born. Either the memory of past bliss is the anguish of to-day, or the agonies which are have their origin in the ecstasies which might have been.
• They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
• The boundaries which divide life from death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?
• With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence; they must not—they cannot at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of mankind.
• And now—have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the senses?—now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound, such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well, too. It was the beating of the old man’s heart.
• All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
• I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active—not more happy—nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
• [I]f you wish to forget anything upon the spot, make a note that this thing is to be remembered.
• Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.

Watch “The Mystery of Edgar Allan Poe” on HISTORY Vault

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• Poe's Short Stories

Edgar Allan Poe

• Literature Notes
• Edgar Allan Poe Biography
• About Poe's Short Stories
• Summary and Analysis
• "The Fall of the House of Usher"
• "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"
• "The Purloined Letter"
• "The Tell-Tale Heart"
• "The Black Cat"
• "The Cask of Amontillado"
• "William Wilson"
• "The Pit and the Pendulum"
• "The Masque of the Red Death"
• Critical Essays
• Edgar Allan Poe and Romanticism
• Poe's Critical Theories
• Cite this Literature Note

Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809, and died October 7, 1849; he lived only forty years, but during his brief lifetime, he made a permanent place for himself in American literature and also in world literature. A few facts about Poe's life are indisputable, but, unfortunately, almost everything else about Poe's life has been falsified, romanticized, slanderously distorted, or subjected to grotesque Freudian interpretations. Poe, it has been said at various times, was a manic depressive, a dope addict, an epileptic, and an alcoholic; moreover, it has been whispered that he was syphilitic, that he was impotent, and that he fathered at least one illegitimate child. Hardly any of Poe's biographers have been content to write a straight account of his life. This was particularly true of his early biographers, and only recently have those early studies been refuted. Intrigued with the horror and mystery of Poe's stories and by the dark romanticism of his poetry, his early critics and biographers often embroidered on the facts of his past in order to create their own imaginative vision of what kind of man produced these "strange" tales and poems. Thus Poe's true genius was neglected for a long time. Indeed, probably more fiction has been written about this American literary master than he himself produced; finally, however, fair and unbiased evaluations of his writings and of his life are available to us, and we can judge for ourselves what kind of a man Poe was. Yet, because the facts are scarce, Poe's claim to being America's first authentic neurotic genius will probably remain, and it is possible that Poe would be delighted.

Both of Poe's parents were professional actors, and this fact in itself has fueled many of the melodramatic myths that surround Poe. Poe's mother was a teenage widow when she married David Poe, and Edgar was their second son. Poe's father had a fairly good reputation as an actor, but he had an even wider reputation as an alcoholic. He deserted the family a year after Poe was born, and the following year, Poe's mother died while she was acting in Richmond, Virginia.

The children were parceled out, and young Poe was taken in as a foster-child by John Allan, a rich southern merchant. Allan never legally adopted Poe, but he did try to give him a good home and a good education.

When Poe was six years old, the Allans moved to England, and for five years Poe attended the Manor House School, conducted by a man who was a good deal like the schoolmaster in "William Wilson." When the Allans returned to America, Poe began using his legal name for the first time.

Poe and his foster-father often quarreled during his adolescence and as soon as he was able to leave home, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia. While he was there, he earned a good academic record, but Mr. Allan never allowed him the means to live in the style his social status demanded. When Poe tried to keep up with his high-living classmates, he incurred so many gambling debts that the parsimonious Mr. Allan prevented his returning for a second year of study.

Unhappy at home, Poe got money somehow (probably from Mrs. Allan) and went to Boston, where he arranged for publication of his first volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). He then joined the army. Two years later, when he was a sergeant-major, he received a discharge to enter West Point, to which he was admitted with Mr. Allan's help. Again, however, he felt frustrated because of the paltry allowance which his foster-father doled out to him, so he arranged to be court-martialed and dismissed.

Poe's next four years were spent in Baltimore, where he lived with an aunt, Maria Clemm; these were years of poverty. When Mr. Allan died in 1834, Poe hoped that he would receive some of his foster-father's fortune, but he was disappointed. Allan left him not a cent. For that reason, Poe turned from writing poetry, which he was deeply fond of — despite the fact that he knew he could never live off his earnings — and turned to writing stories, for which there was a market. He published five tales in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in 1832, and because of his talent and certain influential friends, he became an editorial assistant at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond in December 1835.

The editor of the Messenger recognized Poe's genius and published several of his stories, but he despaired at Poe's tendency to "sip the juice." Nevertheless, Poe's drinking does not seem to have interfered with his duties at the magazine; its circulation grew, Poe continued producing stories, and while he was advancing the reputation of the Messenger, he created a reputation of his own — not only as a fine writer, but also as a keen critic.

Poe married his cousin, Virginia Clemm, in 1836, when she was fourteen years old. He left the Messenger the following year and took his aunt and wife to New York City. There, Poe barely eked out a living for two years as a free-lance writer. He did, however, finish a short novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, and sold it to the Messenger, where it was published in two installments. Harper's bought out the magazine in 1838, but Poe never realized any more money from the novel because his former boss had recorded that the Narrative was only "edited" by Poe.

From New York City, the Poes moved to Baltimore, and for two years, the young family lived in even more dire poverty than they had in New York City. Poe continued writing, however, and finally in May 1839, he was hired as a co-editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. He held this position for a year, during which he published some of his best fiction, including "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "William Wilson."

Because of his drinking, Poe lost his job the following year. This was unfortunate because his Tales of the Grotesque, which had been published several months earlier, was not selling well. Once again, Poe and his wife found themselves on the edge of poverty, but Poe's former employer recommended Poe to the publisher of Graham's , and once again Poe found work as an editor while he worked on his own fiction and poetry.

In January 1842, Poe suffered yet another setback. His wife, Virginia, burst a blood vessel in her throat. She did recover, but Poe's restlessness began to grow, as did the frequency of his drinking bouts, and he left Graham's under unpleasant circumstances. He attempted to found his own magazine and failed; he worked on cheap weeklies for awhile and, in a moment of despair, he went to Washington to seek out President Tyler. According to several accounts, he was so drunk when he called on the President that he wore his cloak inside out.

Shortly afterward, Poe moved his family to New York City and began working for the Sunday Times. The following year was a good one: James Russell Lowell praised Poe's talent and genius in an article, and Poe's poem "The Raven" was published and received rave reviews. Seemingly, Poe had "made it"; "The Raven" was the sensation of the literary season. Poe began lecturing about this time and, shortly afterward, a new collection of his short stories appeared, as well as a collection of his poetry.

Most biographers agree that Poe died of alcoholism — officially, "congestion of the brain." However, in 1996, cardiologist R. Michael Benitez, after conducting a blind clinical pathologic diagnosis of the symptoms of a patient described only as "E.P., a writer from Richmond," concluded that Poe died not from alcoholic poisoning, but from rabies. According to Dr. Benitez, Poe had become so hypersensitive to alcohol in his later years that he became ill for days after only one glass of wine. Benitez also refutes the myth that Poe died in a gutter, stating that he died at Washington College Hospital after four days of hallucinating and shouting at imaginary people.

Next About Poe's Short Stories

The Black Cat

By edgar allan poe, the black cat study guide.

" The Black Cat " by Edgar Allan Poe was first published in 1843 in an edition of the long-running periodical The Saturday Evening Post and subsequently included in The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe (1845). The short story is acclaimed for its probing of insanity, unreliable narration, symbolism, and creeping suspense; nevertheless, the lurid tale, while respected by most scholars and acknowledged as a literary classic, does not always share the prominence of Poe's more popular tales, such as his 1846 short story "The Cask of Amontillado" and its 1839 predecessor " The Fall of the House of Usher ."

The publication of Tales garnered a variety of contemporary critical responses. Rufus Griswold wrote that Poe possessed “a great deal of imagination and fancy” and said it was Poe’s tales that made his reputation. Fellow writer Nathaniel Hawthorne said he could “never fail to recognize [the] force and originality” of Poe’s stories. Lewis Gaylord Clark hated Poe as a man, but he admitted he had “constructive faculty,” “remarkable ingenuity," and “vivid imagination.” Henry B. Hirst said he was “unrivalled as a prose writer.” On the other hand, the North American Review saw the tales as “belonging to the forcible-feeble and the shallow-profound school.”

The widespread attention "The Black Cat" received in its own time inspired numerous parodies, most notably by Thomas Dunn English in his 1844 short story "The Ghost of the Grey Tadpole." He was later renounced by Poe, who called English "a bullet-headed and malicious villain" in a letter.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, the story has been adapted numerous times into nearly every genre, including film, theater productions, audio recordings, and television.

The Black Cat Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Black Cat is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

the black cat

He sees the black cat.

Write down all the main events that happened in the story' the black cat part 2' ?

I don't know about part 1 or part 2. I just read it as a whole story. You can check out the general summary below:

https://www.gradesaver.com/the-black-cat/study-guide/summary

It's Pluto, mate

Michael Moore

Study Guide for The Black Cat

The Black Cat study guide contains a biography of Edgar Allan Poe, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Black Cat
• The Black Cat Summary
• Character List

Essays for The Black Cat

The Black Cat essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

• Damn Cat: The Blasphemous Spirituality of Poe's The Black Cat
• The Unpredictable Map: Unreliable Narration in "The Black Cat"
• Edgar Allan Poe's Gothic Elements
• The Political, Social and Philosophical Analysis of 19th Century American Gothic Literature
• Eyes as a Reflection of the Self in Poe's Short Fiction

Wikipedia Entries for The Black Cat

• Introduction
• Publication history
• Adaptations

The Oval Portrait

Edgar allan poe, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Edgar Allan Poe's The Oval Portrait . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

The Oval Portrait: Introduction

The oval portrait: plot summary, the oval portrait: detailed summary & analysis, the oval portrait: themes, the oval portrait: quotes, the oval portrait: characters, the oval portrait: symbols, the oval portrait: literary devices, the oval portrait: theme wheel, brief biography of edgar allan poe.

Historical Context of The Oval Portrait

Other books related to the oval portrait.

• Full Title: The Oval Portrait
• When Written: 1842
• Where Written:
• When Published: April 1842
• Literary Period: Romanticism
• Genre: Gothic frame story
• Setting: An abandoned chateau in the Apennines sometime during the early 19th century
• Climax: The artist looks up from the completed portrait of his wife, only to discover that she has died.
• Antagonist: The destructively obsessive tendencies of artists
• Point of View: First-person, third person

Extra Credit for The Oval Portrait

Spare Me the Details. “The Oval Portrait” is a shortened and somewhat modified version of an earlier story entitled “Life in Death”. “Life in Death” features more of a backstory for the narrator, but Poe eventually decided to suppress these extra details as he considered them irrelevant to the main thrust of the plot.

Everyone’s a Critic. Though he won fame (and infamy) as a short-story writer and poet, Poe also produced a considerable volume of art criticism and was well-versed in painting and sculpture—which explains the close attention he paid to visual culture in works such as “The Oval Portrait,” “The Philosophy of Furniture,” and others.

Teaching Edgar Allan Poe

To be great, one should “study the greats.” And so, to inspire greatness, one should “teach the greats.” 

Works of literature are vital tools for improving a student’s language arts skills. They serve as models that naturally reinforce spelling, vocabulary, grammar, writing mechanics, reading comprehension, and creative writing. For this reason, it makes sense to instruct using masters of the craft in the classroom. One such important and influential American master is Edgar Allan Poe. 

Poe was a writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and horror. 

Poe was not just an author, but a literary inventor. He is credited with introducing aspects of mystery writing that are now considered classic elements of detective fiction. His works are definitive examples of the art and craft of writing, making them the perfect tools for teaching writing skills and reading comprehension.  

The Best Poe Stories to Teach …

The tell-tale heart lesson plans.

Your students are going to love deciphering and solving puzzles in this creepy,  360° digital escape room.  This activity is designed to work for a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Students will solve a series of clues based on the story  “The Tell-Tale Heart”  by Edgar Allan Poe in order to crack the master lock and escape the room. This game entails reading comprehension skills, finding textual evidence, and making inferences.

This  reading guide for “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe  includes an anticipation guide for students to complete before reading, comprehension/recall questions for during reading, and literary analysis, text-dependent questions for after reading.

Students will analyze:

• point of view
• unreliable narrator
• author’s language

Answer key included as well as an EDITABLE copy for teachers.

Guilty or not guilty?! Let your students decide the fate of the narrator from The Tell-Tale Heart!

This activity requires research, critical thinking, close reading, literary analysis, and finding textual evidence to justify responses. Students will research the different degrees of murder in the United States.  Then they will take on the role of the judge for the trial against the narrator in the story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe.

Students will use both critical thinking skills and evidence from the story to decide if the murder was premeditated, if there was motive, and if there is enough evidence that supports a plea of insanity by the narrator. Once students come to a decision, guilty or not guilty, they will then decide an appropriate punishment for the defendant.

This resource includes:

• Research guide for students to follow (PDF)
• Direct connection between the research and the short story (PDF)
• Questions about the story that require textual evidence (PDF)
• Editable copy for teachers (word document)
• Answer guide for teachers (PDF)

This is a great way to end the unit of “The Tell-Tale Heart” or it could be used as a prewriting activity for an argumentative essay on the same topic.

Reading Paired Texts: Text-Dependent Analysis and Response To Literature Essay for The Tell-Tale Heart and The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe.

If you are looking for a pair of awesome texts with similar themes, topics, and literary elements, this product features a compare and contrast chart for the two gothic tales by Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat.”

Both feature unreliable narrators who commit heinous crimes. Both narrators claim not to be mad, but are they telling the truth? Both stories are also filled with horror, suspense, and evil. Comparing these two stories is great practice for writing a TDA.

Included in this purchase is:

• a graphic organizer that outlines how students will compare multiple literary elements of the two short stories.
• the response to literature (RTL) essay or text-dependent analysis (TDA) prompt for students and a rubric with point values based on Common Core Standards.
• an answer guide to the literary analyses of both texts.

Student Objectives:

• Analyze how two texts from the same author treat similar themes or topics.
• Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
• Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly, as well as inferences and conclusions based on and related to an author’s implicit and explicit assumptions and beliefs.
• Draw evidence from literary texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
• Students will analyze important literary devices including: plot, conflicts, themes, characters, point of view, text structure, mood, tone, and symbolism.

The Cask of Amontillado Lesson Plans

Your students are going to love deciphering and solving puzzles in this ominous, 360°  digital escape room . This activity is designed to work for a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Students will solve a series of clues based on the story  “The Cask of Amontillado”  by  Edgar Allan Poe  in order to crack the master lock and escape the room. This game entails reading comprehension skills, finding textual evidence, and making inferences.

Included in this download are teacher instructions, student instructions (digital), the master lock graphic organizer, answer keys, and a reflection sheet (optional).

One of Edgar Allan Poe’s most popular sinister tales is  The Cask of Amontillado.  In this  literary short story analysis , students will define academic vocabulary from the story, participate in an anticipation activity, be given a brief background on Carnival of Venice, answer reading comprehension questions, write a quick summary, and play a fun “would you rather” game based on details of the story. Answer keys are included! This story is perfect for learning the three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic as well as character motivations, theme, dialogue, suspense, and mood.

The Fall of the House of Usher Lesson Plans

Your students are going to love deciphering and solving puzzles in this creepy and suspenseful  360° digital escape room.  Students must escape the house of Usher before the whole mansion collapses on them!

This activity is designed to work for a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Students will solve a series of clues based on the story  “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe  in order to crack the master lock and escape the room. This game requires reading comprehension skills; students must find textual evidence to solve the puzzles. Watch the video preview to get a closer look at the clues and the room.

This product is for  Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”  and consists of  reading comprehension  questions and a  gothic literature analysis  graphic organizer.

1) To activate students’ prior knowledge on gothic literature, students will participate in a carousel brainstorming activity.

2) Students will define academic vocabulary for the short story “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

3) Students will read the full story “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and complete the reading comprehension questions.

4) Students will analyze the literature after reading. Using textual evidence, students will fill out a graphic organizer identifying and explaining gothic motifs and elements in “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

5) Answer keys provided.

The Raven Lesson Plans

Your students are going to love  The Raven Digital Escape Room!  Students will read and analyze the poem  “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.

They will solve 6 puzzles in this 360° ominous, dark, room,—of course with a spooky raven perched inside. Check out the video preview to get a sneak peek of the room!

This activity is designed to work for a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. This game requires reading comprehension strategies, knowledge of poetic devices, and critical thinking skills.

Included in this purchase are: teacher instructions, student instructions (digital), the master lock graphic organizer, answer guides, the full text of the poem, and a reflection sheet (optional).

This resource includes a copy of the poem  “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe  and 26 close reading questions. The analysis includes an in-depth look at academic vocabulary, poetic devices, and literary elements in the poem. (An answer key is also provided.)

Poetic and Literary Devices Covered in this Activity:

• alliteration
• rhyme scheme
• gothic literature

The Masque of the Red Death Lesson Plans

Your students are going to love deciphering and solving puzzles in this creepy, dark, and suspenseful  360° digital escape room.  Students must escape the black chamber before the Red Death can get them!

This activity is designed to work for a laptop, tablet, or smart phone. Students will solve a series of clues based on the story  “The Masque of the Red Death”   by Edgar Allan Poe  in order to crack the master lock and escape the room. This game entails reading comprehension skills, finding textual evidence, and making inferences. Watch the video preview to get a closer look!

Have your students read the foreboding, gothic short story  “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe with this Close Reading and Analysis  activity! This product includes the short story, side by side with questions to annotate/analyze the literature as well as define academic vocabulary.

Included in this literary analysis:

• before reading activity on color meanings
• before reading journal activity
• full text “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe
• vocabulary terms to define
• reading comprehension questions
• after reading analysis questions, with a focus on allegory and symbolism
• objective summary prompt
• answer keys

The Black Cat Lesson Plans

Have your students read the creepy, gothic  short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe  and supplement your lesson with these pre-reading, during reading, and after reading activities!

First have your students look at a series of superstitions and decide if they are superstitious themselves.

Secondly, this story is RICH with academic vocabulary. Have your students choose 10 words from a list of 25 words to learn and define.

Next, your students will read the short story “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allan Poe and answer 25 questions that require literary analysis and the use of textual evidence.

Have your students dive further into the short story with a quote analysis activity and direct students to breakdown the significance of important quotes from the story.

To summarize this lesson, have your students write an objective summary of the text; lastly, they will choose one of three fun, creative writing options from a learning menu.

Literary elements covered in this lesson include foreshadowing, suspense, irony, point of view, character motives, and theme.

Literary Elements to Cover

Literary elements create meaning and convey that meaning to readers. Developing a solid understanding of a story’s elements is essential for students to follow and fully comprehend what they’re reading. It also helps kids become intentional about how they craft their thoughts into words once it comes time to write. 

So, the most effective way to teach literary elements is to show students how those elements work to create meaning within a given text. One major literary element used to drive meaning in Poe’s works is mood. 

Poe has been referred to as the “Master of Mood.” Using “The Raven” as an example, Poe implements descriptions and descriptive words, such as “midnight dreary” and “bleak December,” to create a doomy and ominous atmosphere. A good exercise is to have students circle or underline any “mood” words they can find. 

Another element in almost all of Poe’s works is suspense. In “The Tell-Tale Heart,” Poe creates suspense through first-person narration with an unreliable narrator. This technique present readers with the opportunity to make their own interpretations. Poe builds suspense further through carefully timing his plot events.

Poe also uses irony to make the tension in his stories stronger and more intense. For example, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” the reader knows Montresor despises Fortunato and plans his demise. However, Fortunato is ignorant of this fact, and his ignorance proves fatal to him. To get specific, this is an example of dramatic irony because the readers are aware of something that characters in the story are not. 

Figurative language is another element that makes Poe’s works so masterful. Metaphor, personification, allusion, simile—these elements are interpretive tools for the reader to use and they bring richness and coherence to a text.

Best Tactics for Struggling Readers

Poe was a literary genius, and his texts can be challenging to read. When appropriate, there are simplified and abbreviated versions of Poe’s works for struggling readers. 

Otherwise, it may be helpful to give struggling readers more context before reading. The Academy of American Poets recommends warming students up with an illustration of the poem. Effective readers often “see” a story in their mind.

It may also be helpful to share relevant information for context. In the case of “The Raven,” the AAP recommends the article “ 10 Fascinating Facts About Ravens .” Such a resource gives students an alternate entry point into the poem, as well as practice with noticing visual details.

It’s also helpful to struggling readers if teachers synthesize information along the way. This means looking distinctly for related words, concepts, and ideas in the text and using them to form a main idea or summary statement. Since Poe makes such heavy use of literary elements like mood, his works are perfect for this exercise.

Enrichment Ideas for the Gifted Classroom

Poe’s life and works present infinite opportunities for enrichment activities for more skillful students. 

The imitation assignment is a good one. Imitating the writing of others can help students enhance their own writing. Have students write their own poems, taking Poe’s as a model. The goal is to substitute different subject matter while still trying to imitate the exact grammatical structures, lengths and rhythms of the sentences, and the tones of the original. 

Student poems don’t need to be the same length as Poe’s. However, they should be long enough to incorporate important elements of Poe’s, such as the refrain, which he deemed key to poetic effect. Students should of course indicate which poem they are imitating.

Another enrichment idea is writing the prequel to a piece of Poe’s, such as “The Raven.” Have students explore what they think happened to Lenore, or have students write a sequel to the poem whereby they explore what happens next. 

The narrator’s unknown fate in “The Tell-Tale Heart” makes for the perfect mock trial with gifted students. Should the narrator be charged with first degree murder? Should he be found not guilty by plea of insanity? Have your students be the judge and jury to decide.

Growing with popularity today are digital escape rooms . Have your students participate individually or collaboratively in groups to solve clues in a creepy, eerie Poe-themed escape room. Students love the technology aspect as well as the adventure game feel.

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Edgar Allan Poe Biography Video Guided Notes + Key

• Word Document File

Description

***Updated with NEW video link***

A "fill in the blank" style guided notes handout that I made to go along with this 43 minute video about the great Edgar Allan Poe! Answer key included.

NEW YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5two65m1QE

The video is engaging, informative, and a great length. If you can stream in your classroom, this would also make a perfect sub plan. There are some slightly disturbing images and content in this video, so I would not recommend it for young students.

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New York Today

When edgar allan poe lived, and loved, in the bronx.

The manuscript of Poe’s poem “For Annie,” written while he was living in a Bronx cottage after his wife’s death, is up for auction.

By James Barron

Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at the manuscript of “For Annie,” a poem that Edgar Allan Poe wrote when he lived in a cottage in the Bronx. Annie was married, but that didn’t stop him. We’ll also look at a report that found “big gaps” in the way City Hall prepares for extreme weather.

Also, so you know: New York Today will focus on what’s going on in New York this week — aside from the trial of former President Donald Trump. We’ll summarize the developments in our Latest New York News section, and you can also sign up to receive our Trump on Trial newsletter .

“This is a very special moment,” Richard Austin said, leaning over a yellowed sheet of paper that had been placed on a writing desk — a now-faded original manuscript of a famous poem by Edgar Allan Poe, “For Annie.”

Austin, the head of books and manuscripts at Sotheby’s, was standing in a stark, white room at the Poe Cottage on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, where Poe lived when he wrote “For Annie.”

Sotheby’s expects the page to sell for $400,000 to $600,000 in June. That would have been an unimaginable sum for Poe, who was so poor when he lived in the cottage that his mother-in-law “resorted to digging up the turnips meant for the cattle,” one Poe biographer wrote. His wife’s mother, Maria Clemm, also gathered dandelions “and other greens” for salads.

Poe had moved there in 1846 with his ailing wife, Virginia, and Clemm. “The hope was that the country would improve Virginia’s health and her husband’s battered psyche,” Mark Dawidziak wrote in the 2023 biography “A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe.”

But Virginia died of tuberculosis in 1847 — the bed in which she died is in a little room beyond the one where the “For Annie” manuscript had been laid out. Austin said that the page with “For Annie” had not been back at the Poe Cottage since 1849, when Poe sent it off to an editor, hoping it would be published. (It was.)

Poe also wrote “The Bells,” “Eureka” and “Annabel Lee” while living in the cottage, which he had rented for $100 a year, or $8.33 a month. “The equivalent of $3,000 a year now,” said Roger McCormack, the director of education for the Bronx County Historical Society, which maintains the cottage.

It was “so neat, so poor, so unfurnished and yet so charming” when Poe lived there, one visitor wrote after stopping by. (McCormack said the cottage had been across the street when Poe lived in it. It was moved into what is now Poe Park in 1913 , according to the Department of Parks and Recreation.)

When the High Bridge opened in 1848, “it became a pacing and thinking place for Poe, who, day and night, might be spotted on the grass causeway” atop the structure, Dawidziak wrote.

He was aware of his “gloomy ‘Raven Man’ image,” Dawidziak wrote, but some found him surprisingly cheerful — “a very handsome and elegant-appearing gentleman,” according to Mary Bronson, who visited Poe in 1847. And he made friends with leaders of nearby St. John’s College, which had been founded a few years before and is now Fordham University. They “smoked, drank and played cards like gentlemen, and never said a word about religion.”

So who was Annie?

Her name was Nancy Richmond. She was married and lived in Massachusetts. She had met Poe when he gave a reading in Boston.

She was not the only woman Poe was infatuated with after his wife’s death. “Only his powerful involvement, later on, with Sarah Helen Whitman served to eclipse Mrs. Richmond,” one account noted. Whitman was a wealthy widow whose family worried that Poe was interested only in her money.

As if that were not complicated enough, when things cooled with Whitman, he pursued a widow he had known when they were children.

But he never really got over Annie. At one point he implored her to visit him at the cottage. “I feel I CANNOT live, unless I can feel your sweet, gentle, loving hand pressed upon my forehead,” he wrote.

Poe was proud of “For Annie.” “I think the lines for Annie much the best I have ever written,” he said. (As Austin pointed out, “If you’re trying to woo someone, you’re not going to say, ‘I’m not sending you my best.”)

But Poe also noted that “an author can seldom depend on his own estimate of his own works — so I wish to know what my Annie truly thinks of them.”

Richmond officially changed her first name to Annie after Poe died.

Look for a sunny day with temperatures in the low 60s and a light breeze. The evening will turn cooler and cloudy, with temperatures in the low 50s.

ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING

Suspended today and tomorrow (Passover).

The latest New York news

The trump trial.

Opening statements and a first witness : The hush-money trial of Donald Trump began with opening statements from lawyers for both sides. The first witness was the longtime publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker.

What the lawyers said : A prosecutor, Matthew Colangelo, began by telling jurors that Trump had conspired with his former fixer, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker to conceal damaging stories during the 2016 campaign. Trump’s lead lawyer, Todd Blanche, said that Trump’s actions had been normal and legal.

If Trump testifies: Justice Juan Merchan ruled that prosecutors could ask Trump about previous cases that he had lost, as well as past violations of gag orders, if he testified.

No video allowed: New York courts generally do not permit video to be broadcast from courtrooms, so there will be no televised video feed from the trial . Nor will there be an audio feed, as some federal courts allow.

More Local News

Campus protests : Around the campus of Columbia University on Monday, a day of protests held under perfect blue skies just hours before the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover, the sentiment shared by nearly everyone was anger at the university’s president, Nemat Shafik .

An eight-foot setback: One man’s ideas about city life in the 19th century made things difficult for would-be developers in a $180 million deal in Brooklyn .

More funding needed: Trauma recovery centers help victims of violent crime, particularly in low-income communities. With city budget cuts looming, centers in Coney Island, East Flatbush and the Bronx are already struggling to stay afloat , the columnist Ginia Bellafante writes.

‘Big gaps’ in how City Hall handles emergency preparations

A report by the New York City comptroller’s office found “big gaps” in the way City Hall handles emergency preparations for extreme weather, like the storms that inundated New York City with more than eight inches of rain last September.

The report found that only 19 of the Department of Environmental Protection’s 51 specialized catch-basin cleaning trucks had been available — the other 32 were out of service. The trucks are a key part of the city’s toolbox for preventing floods.

The report also said the city’s communications with the public were lacking.

The mayor did not hold a news conference about the storm until nearly three hours after the heavy rains had begun. The Department of Education did not directly communicate “any information” to students’ families about the weather in advance of the storm, according to the comptroller.

While the city’s opt-in emergency alert system sent out notices, most New Yorkers do not subscribe to the flash-flood warnings: “Only 2.7 percent of New Yorkers over 16 years of age (185,895 people) received Notify NYC emergency alerts for the flash flood event on Sept. 29,” according to the report.

METROPOLITAN diary

Strawberry spill

Dear Diary:

I was biking across West 15th Street on my way home from the Union Square Greenmarket. I had a flat of ripe strawberries attached to the back of my bike with a bungee cord.

I was planning to make strawberry conserve for everyone who had helped me through my recent chemotherapy.

I didn’t notice the pothole until it was too late. Strawberries went flying, and I ran into the street to retrieve them.

The driver of a black S.U.V. behind me also hit the brakes, blocking traffic as I gathered up my errant berries. Then my bike tipped over, and quarts of strawberries sprayed across the pavement.

As I grabbed my helmet, a woman on the sidewalk offered to hold my bike steady while I scooped up the berries. She couldn’t stay long, she explained, because she was waiting for an air-conditioner to be delivered.

Just then, the air-conditioner man got out of his van on the other side of the street and came over to help. The S.U.V. driver continued to block traffic until all the berries were back in their boxes.

I thanked my strawberry Samaritans profusely and pedaled home, where I washed the berries and made eight cups of jam.

— Catherine Fredman

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here .

Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B.

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee . You can find all our puzzles here .

Geordon Wollner, Dana Rubinstein and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

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James Barron writes the New York Today newsletter, a morning roundup of what’s happening in the city. More about James Barron