Post #5

Essay topics:
Poe's wrote of death and suffering because of his late wife.

Poe was mad man with a reputation, as a witty critic, to be upheld. His writings reflect the extremities to which his death and love obsessed mind were pushed.

Poe was meerly a writer. His writings are not reflective of his life, but that of the times.

Update

I've read all poems and 9 short stories.

The Pit and the Pendulum: A man is captured, mentally tortured, and barely saved. The narrorater is sentenced to death and subsequently wakes up in a black room, which at its center has a rat infested pit. He narrowly escapes death via pit and is soon met with the pendulum. Having been feed/drugged he is strapped to a plank and a huge scythe swings over head, slowly sinking. The narrorater is nearly driven mad, but at the last instance, gets the rats to dive onto his ropes and cut him loose. Than the iron prison heats to extremities, the pics on the walls eyes glow, and the room begins to close in on him. Just as he makes his last scream, he is saved by a general.
(12 pages)
The Premature Burial: Although slightly non traditional in its beginning and its end, as far as Poe's works are concerned, a writing about being buried before one is dead. The narrorater suffers from a diseases which renders him into death like coma states, the man takes precautions to avoid preinternmant. He alerts his freinds as well as makes his family tomb easily escapable. Although he takes precautions, every time he goes into a coma and wakes up, he is mortified. Eventually waking up in total darkness, the narrorator finds himself in a box like construct and shrieks. Being only in a small bed on a trip with comrades, the man decides to go out and live a free life without limitations, no longering cowering or obeying his fears.


(12 pages)