Edgar Allan
Poe
(1809
-
1849)
Born
in
Boston,
Massachusetts,
USA.
Studied
at
the
University
of
Virginia,
but
soon
left
it,
worked
as a
clerk,
newspaper
writer.
Later
was
enlisted
in
the
US
Army
as
private.
He
wrote
Tamurlane
and
Other
Poems
(1827),
Politian (1835),
The
Narrative
of
Arthur
Gordon
Pym
of
Nantucket (1838),
Tales
of
the
Grotesque
and
Arabesque
(1840),
The
Balloon-Hoax
(1844),The
Philosophy
of
Composition
(1846),
Eureka:
A
Prose
Poem (1848),The
Poetic
Principle
(1848),The
Light-House
(1849).
  What
ho!
what
ho!
this
fellow
is
dancing
mad!
He
hath
been
bitten
by
the
Tarantula.
All
in
the
Wrong.
This
island
is a
very
singular
one.
It
consists
of
little
else
than
the
sea
sand,
and
is
about
three
miles
long.
Its
breadth
at no
point
exceeds
a
quarter
of a
mile.
It is
separated
from
the
main
land
by a
scarcely
perceptible
creek,
oozing
its
way
through
a
wilderness
of
reeds
and
slime,
a
favourite
resort
of
the
marsh-
hen.
The
vegetation,
as
might
be
supposed,
is
scant,
or at
least
dwarfish.
No
trees
of
any
magnitude
are
to be
seen.
Near
the
western
extremity,
where
Fort
Moultrie
stands,
and
where
are
some
miserable
frame
buildings,
tenanted,
during
summer,
by
the
fugitives
from
Charleston
dust
and
fever,
may
be
found,
indeed,
the
bristly
palmetto;
but
the
whole
island,
with
the
exception
of
this
western
point,
and a
line
of
hard,
white
beach
on
the
sea-coast,
is
covered
with
a
dense
undergrowth
of
the
sweet
myrtle,
so
much
prized
by
the
horticulturists
of
England.
The
shrub
here
often
attains
the
height
of
fifteen
or
twenty
feet,
and
forms
an
almost
impenetrable
coppice,
burdening
the
air
with
its
fragrance.
|
The Brangwens had lived for generations on the Marsh Farm, in the meadows where the Erewash twisted sluggishly through alder trees, separating Derbyshire from Nottinghamshire. Two miles away, a church - tower stood on a hill, the houses of the little country town climbing assiduously up to it. Whenever one of the Brangwens in the fields lifted his head from his work, he saw the church-tower at Ilkeston in the empty sky. So that as he turned again to the horizontal land, he was aware of something standing above him and beyond him in the distance.
