Bird on a Clock

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Bird on a Clock

This ACEO was designed to reference Poe's ' The Raven'. My favorite part of high school English classes was reading the works of Edgar Allen Poe. I think teachers chose his stories and poems because the horror tends to attract the imaginations of young students. I certainly did mine. I even wanted to be like him and I wrote a lot of horror short stories when I was a teen.

I grew up and decided I didn't like living in a horror story all the time. It's a fun place to visit and I always appreciate the "summer chills" season at the Alley theater but Poe lived such a tragic life, I can't help but wonder how much was brought on by  alcohol and opium addiction.

There are many theories as to how he died in that wretched and dark, back alley behind a local bar. Many believe it was the brothers of his new wife that killed him. The brother-in-laws to Poe felt his young wife was too young to marry and since she was his second cousin, they also felt the marriage was doomed. Did they seek revenge on Poe that one fateful night?

His life reads like many of his horror stories. As beautiful as they are, they are full of suffering and gloom. I do admire the way he used his creativity to work through these issues. Most believe his greatest poem, "The Raven" was written while his wife lay dying on the couch next to him. This certainly adds new meaning to the phrase 'nevermore.' I remember reading that he said he didn't know what type of animal would speak the infamous words in the poem and he tried many but settled on the raven because it symbolized a creature of the night. Creatures of the night have always symbolized the macabre and the unknown so it worked quite well.