celeste57 's review for:

Selected Poems and Tales of Edgar Allen Poe by Edgar Allan Poe, Roscoe Gilmore Stott

4.5

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: N/A

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

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Edgar Allan Poe has held a special place in my heart since I was a child.  I have a very distinct memory of Christmas when I was 8 years old.  My parents gave me a box of Great Illustrated Classics each year, and that was the year of the spooky books.  Frankenstein, Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Gray were all included.  And, most notably, so was Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Terror.  In this memory, I’m laying on my bed, listening to the Backstreet Boys CD I had just unwrapped while reading “The Tell-Tale Heart” for the very first time.  My earliest experience with poetry outside of Dr. Seuss was my grandfather quoting the entirety of “Annabel Lee” from memory.  So to say that I have a soft spot for Poe’s work would be a vast understatement.  

 

While this collection itself is a mixed bag, as most “selected poetry” collections are, I found it overwhelmingly solid.  My favorite poems remain “The Raven” and Annabel Lee,” but I encountered some that were new to me that I very much enjoyed.  Even on the poems that weren’t my favorites, where Poe seemed to have gotten lost in his own cadence and lovely language to the point that he lost the thread of story he was trying to spin, I was captivated by the rhythm.  His cadence is just always so perfect, so easy to hear even in the silence of your own mind.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with it.