Bicentenary Edgar Alan Poe

I didn’t have as many books as I would have liked growing up, but I did have Poe — and that goes a long way to making up for any other lack. Today is the great man’s 200th birthday, and there are quite a few celebrations going on in different cities.
Being from the Baltimore area I’ve always had a mild sense of proprietorship toward Poe, which has no doubt fueled my enthusiasm for his writing over the years. Few writers have ever approached his skill at evoking the weird and the dreadful, and his ability to work at any end of the spectrum between the rational and the fantastical. He is one of the major foundational figures of genre fiction, from horror, to mystery, to fantasy, and one of my all-time favorite writers.
Excerpt from a biography written by C.D. Merriman .

A Dream
In visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed--
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream--that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam,
A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, thro' storm and night,
o trembled from afar--
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day star? 1837.

2º Bachillerato

Reading and Writing Activity: Read excerpt about E.A. Poe and the poem, then search for another poem and express your opinion about his personality in a few sentences.