# Edgar Allen Poe - genius? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2012, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597 "2012-10-13T06:46:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/41 "2012-10-14T20:39:02Z")
Found it – it’s called “No Spot of Ground,” by Walter John Williams. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/42 "2012-10-14T20:45:50Z")
> [@Naive\_Evian](#): > > But the average man loves Kinkade. Why you can go to a strip mall and get a genuine piece of art. Genius. … No. Kinkade is a genius in _marketing_ (although he was once quite skilled at painting too). Poe was not: he was and is known for his exceptional works of horror, mystery, and atmosphere. in multiple styles and genres. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/43 "2012-10-15T13:41:25Z")
The fact that people still recite The Raven (and the Simpsons did it on the FIRST Treehouse of Horror) proves that Poe had something. If he had only written that poem, people would still know him. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/44 "2012-10-15T15:52:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > People do realize that Twain’s critique of Cooper was a _joke_, right? Hm… you really think so? I read it (the critique) from time to time when I need a good laugh, and it is certainly full of jokes. But I’m not sure he was really kidding about thinking Cooper was pretty hackish. I’m willing to be convinced. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/45 "2012-10-15T16:00:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > People do realize that Twain’s critique of Cooper was a _joke_, right? Twain wrote _two_ suvchh critiques of Cooper. They’re both worth reading. It wasn’t a joke, although Twain handled it with a light touch. Twain’s rules were ones he lived by, and which he saw Cooper violating. As I’ve written before, I think the problem isn’t with Cooper, or with Twain, realy. Twain lived at a time when the popular style had changed from the long-winded wordy style that Cooper used to a swifter, more coloquial style. Cooper is still read – I have no problem fuinding his stuff in the bookstore. Furthermore, Poe is just as old-fashioned. I realized this when I listened to a reading of _The Gold Bug_ that I tried to interest my daughter in. She thought it was un-listenable. As I listened to it, I could mentally follow Twain if he were to blue-pencil it\*. There were just too many words used in the descriptions. And they were words that Twain would have considered “not quite the right one”. Worse, the recording was of an already abridged version, so it was even less wordy than the text is. \*How’s that for a mixed metaphor? ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/46 "2012-10-15T23:54:24Z")
I vote genius. I’ve loved Poe since somebody did a dramatic reading of Hopfrog to my third grade class. I adore The Raven. It actually gets scarier as you grow older and understand it more. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/47 "2012-10-16T15:49:22Z")
Genius. My favorite: > **[To One in Paradise by Edgar Allan Poe | Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50462/to-one-in-paradise)** > > Thou wast that all to me, love, The last stanza is sublime. ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/48 "2012-10-16T16:12:15Z")
> [@](#): > > “For the love of God, Montresor!” > “Yes, for the love of God!” Genuine genius and a reminder of what I shall read at Halloween this year. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/49 "2012-10-16T18:38:05Z")
Was Edgar Allen Poe a genius? How to vote, how to vote? Oh! I know! Detective fiction’s _Edgar_ Award, is that named for him or Edgar Guest? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/50 "2012-10-16T20:02:03Z")
Check out Ray Bradbury’s “Usher II” and “The Exiles” for two wonderfully sly homages to Poe. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597/51 "2012-10-16T23:51:16Z")
An now was acknowledged the prescence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night, and one by one dropped revelers in the blood bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with the last of the gay, and the flames of the tripods expired. And darkness and decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/edgar-allen-poe-genius/637597.md?page=2)