In Response to: Poe

Poe has always been a highlight of my English classes. I have always loved the creepy feeling of his stories and poems, and I think I share this love with many of my peers. He is interesting because he’s weird and mysterious, and because of this, I think using Poe in English lessons fosters increased student engagement. For our readings of Edgar Allan Poe, I chose “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Haunted Palace,” and “Alone.”  

Admittedly, this isn’t the first time I have read “The Cask of Amontillado,” but I have not read it since high school, and it’s one of my favorites. I love the use of irony in this text. It is actually the first text I remember reading in which the irony stuck out enough for me to understand it. It’s a short text, but it is somewhat complex, and my teacher (the same really awesome one that I wrote about in my last blog post) physically acted out the story for our class, so we could better comprehend the action in the text.

Similar to “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Haunted Palace” is a great example of the creepiness that is Poe’s poetry. The poem speaks on a once-happy palace that now is witnessed as haunted with unhappy spirits and unpleasant sounds. This poem focuses on time and change, but it does so in a very Poe way. I think there is something strangely appealing in the creepiness of Poe’s poetry that intrigues both students and teachers alike.

“Alone” lends itself to a more biographical lens of Poe’s writing. He describes his dismal view of life with an interesting contrasting sing-song rhyme scheme that I think students would enjoy. This poem is more straightforward than “The Haunted Palace” is, and therefore, I find it to be more accessible to wider range of learners.