Edgar Allan Poe Tribute

All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. -- Edgar Allan Poe

     Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first great authors I was ever introduced to as a child in school.  He was the first author to ever resonate with me as well.  His work felt alive in a way that no other writer that I had been exposed to ever had.  His words were alive, they even seemed to breathe, they lept off the page and walked around the secret passages of your mind, and sometimes, even seemed to scream out loudly in fear.

     I had been exposed to many of the classic poets and authors in that English textbook such as, Robert Frost, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, and many others but Edgar Allan Poe's work was noticeably different.  In a way I never experienced again until I saw Hitchcock's 'Psycho', or first read 'Misery' by Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe's words worked his way into your very psyche.  He clearly understood what fear was, what panic and insanity felt like, and how to instill those feelings into the reader through just his words.
     While I do not claim to be a scholar of Poe's work, nor do I wish to write out his whole autobiography here, I did want to write a short tribute to him as an early inspiration of mine.  Edgar Allen Poe was the first classic author I was exposed to in school that I felt spoke to me and excited me about writing.  His stories, notably 'The Tell Tale Heart', 'The Raven, and 'The Pit And The Pendulum', were the first I'd ever read that had me in true suspense and the memory of reading those stories is still very much alive within me.  To any one who hasn't at least sampled Poe's work, I highly recommend you do.  You won't regret it.