(Also take notes on the LIFE of Poe as we watch the film and discuss it!)

"Alone" (on reprint handout)

1. What are two ways in which the speaker differs from other people? (see lines 5-7 especially)

2. List the images (mental pictures) contained in lines 12-20.

3. Look at the last three lines of the poem.

What is the speaker looking at?

What does he see here?

What do others, in contrast, see in the very same scene (their view is contained in parentheses)?

Given this, what can we say about the speaker's view of life or the world?

4. How are lines 20-22 an example or illustration of the general concept or statement made found in lines 2-3?

5. This poem has only recently been attributed to Poe, though he wrote it when he was about 20 years old. Explain why he might not have published "Alone" in his lifetime.

"Annabel Lee" (Heath p. 1032)

1. What is the setting (time, place) of the poem?

Does the poem take place in America? How do you know?

2. What resemblance does the relationship portrayed in the poem bear to relationships in Poe's own life with:

Virginia--

Jane Stanard--

Poe's mother--

Frances Allan --

3. What happens to Annabel? How is her illness described?

Why do the angels do this? How did they feel about the relationship between the speaker and Annabel?

4. How are the angels in the poem portrayed?

Is this the usual way in which angels are viewed?

5. At the end of the poem, what does the speaker tell us he did each night?

6. What are two characteristics of the Romantic Movement that we can see in this poem?

"The Raven" (Heath p. 1028)

1. What is the setting in this poem? Describe the time and place.

2. What would you say is the overall mood or effect of the poem?

Which elements or details in the setting add to the overall effect of the poem?

3. How would you describe the style of this poem (its word choice, meter, rhyme, etc.)?

4. What does the speaker at first realize about the bird when it says "Nevermore"?

5. How and WHEN can we tell that the speaker is beginning to lose his grasp on reality?

6. When the bird first arrived, how did the narrator feel about its visit?

How does he feel about the bird's presence by the end of the poem?

7. What is the speaker's emotional and mental condition by the end of the poem?

Has the bird actually done anything to cause this?

What did cause it?

8. Why do you suppose this was Poe's most popular poem?

"The Tell-Tale Heart" (in small Poe story book)

1. Describe the personality of the narrator of the story.

2. According to the narrator, what medical problem did he suffer from?

3. How did the narrator say he felt about the old man (not about his eye, but about the man himself)?

4. How many nights did he practice before committing the murder?

5. What did the narrator and the old man have in common? (What, for instance, did they both do upon hearing a strange noise in the night?)

6. Why did the narrator really kill the old man? (He says it was because of the eye, but the reader needs to figure out the real motive.)

7. What does the old man actually die from?

8. Throughout the story, how does the narrator seem to feel about the crime he committed (guilty, proud of himself, indifferent?)?

9. What causes the narrator to confess at the end?

10. What do you suppose causes the narrator to imagine the heartbeat?

11. Why did the narrator insist to the reader that he was not insane? Do you think that he really was insane?

Why or why not?

"The Black Cat" (in small Poe story book)

1. Where is the narrator as he tells his story?

What is going to happen to him the following day? Why?

2. Explain what the narrator was like in his younger days.

3. Why did the narrator prefer animals to humans ("the gossamer fidelity of mere man")?

4. Explain how the narrator became as he aged and WHY he became this way.

5. According to the narrator, what did the SPIRIT OF PERVERSENESS make him do?

6. Describe all that the narrator does to Pluto.

7. What happens just after the narrator hangs Pluto?

What is left on the wall?

8. Explain how the narrator feels about the second cat and how it feels about him.

How does this lead to his eventual downfall (the murder)?

9. Who is the protagonist of this story?

Who (or what) is/are the antagonist(s)?

10. List three things that this narrator has in COMMON with the narrator of "The Tell-Tale Heart."

a.

b.

c.

Describe three DIFFERENCES between the two narrators.

TTH Narrator BC narrator

11. The narrator abused his wife and pets. What did they all have in common in terms of their feelings for the narrator (before the abuse)?

12. Why do you suppose the narrator abused these people and animals as opposed to strangers or stray animals? What might he be afraid they will do if he doesn't destroy or drive them away first? (Remember what he said about "the gossamer fidelity of mere man."

13. List three ways in which the narrator is self-destructive.

a.

b.

c.

"Ligeia" (Heath p. 990)

1. What odd statements does the narrator make in the first paragraph, where he describes his early relationship with Ligeia?

2. Describe the physical characteristics of Ligeia. What single feature stood out the most?

3. What does the narrator say about Ligeia's intelligence?

4. What eventually happened to Ligeia?

5. Put into your own words what Ligeia says just before she dies.

6. What does the narrator do "after a few months"?

7. Describe the abbey both inside and out, but especially the "bridal chamber."

8. How does the narrator feel about his second wife, Lady Rowena, and why?

9. What does the narrator do to escape unhappiness?

10. According to the narrator, what did Rowena fear in her illness?

11. What is the mood of the room described by the narrator?

12. Why is there reason to suspect that the narrator poisoned Rowena by poisoning her wine?

13. Does Rowena die right away? Explain.

14. What does the end of the story have to do with the words that Ligeia spoke right before she died?

"The Fall of the House of Usher" (Heath p. 1001)

1. Where in the beginning of the story does the narrator mention that the whole thing is like a dream?

There are two instances. Quote them.

2. Why has the narrator come to visit Roderick?

How did Roderick get him to come?

3. In what ways does Rod look like Ligeia?

4. In what ways do Rod and his house resemble each other? (Find specific parallels in the language used to describe the two.)

5. From what sort of symptoms does Rod suffer?

6. a. What factors does Rod say caused his illness?

b. What is said here about Rod's relationship with his sister?

7. a. Describe what Rod is painting.

b. What part of the house (seen later in the story) does this painting resemble?

8. a. Summarize the plot of "The Haunted Palace."

b. What real-world illness or problem does this poem symbolize?

9. What does the narrator tell us about Rod's belief (or "opinion") about inanimate objects?

10. What does the narrator notice about Madeline as they entomb her?

11. According to Rod, why is he doing this with her body?

12. What changes come over Rod after they entomb Madeline?

13. What is happening as the narrator is reading The Mad Trist to Rod?

14. What does Rod call the narrator just before Madeline enters?

15. How does Rod die? (Describe his physical position, that of Madeline, and what seems actually to kill him here.)

16. What happens to the house in the end? Describe the scene.