Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Andrew Davis.
Speaker 2: And I'm Megan Nolat. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: It is night. A man shines a light through the
Speaker 1: gap in a door. Inside the room, an old man
Speaker 1: is sleeping. One of his eyes is open, but the
Speaker 1: eye is blind and clouded over. The younger man steps
Speaker 1: into the room. His hands shake with fear. He thinks
Speaker 1: that he can hear the old man's heart beating. The
Speaker 1: sound begins to grow louder and louder. The young man
Speaker 1: raises a knife. He needs to silence the heart. He
Speaker 1: needs to close the strange eye. So the young man
Speaker 1: brings the knife down. He murders the old man.
Speaker 2: After the crime, the man tries to cover up what
Speaker 2: he has done. He cleans his house. He hides the
Speaker 2: body underneath the floor. The police come to investigate, but
Speaker 2: they can find nothing wrong. They interview him in the
Speaker 2: old man's room.
Speaker 1: The young man is calm at first, he believes no
Speaker 1: one will discover his crime. Then he begins to hear
Speaker 1: a noise from under his floor. He hears the beating
Speaker 1: of a heart. The noise grows louder and louder. No
Speaker 1: one else can hear it, but the young man is
Speaker 1: sure they can. He thinks they must know he is guilty,
Speaker 1: so he admits to everything. As he does so, he
Speaker 1: continues to hear the heart beating louder and louder underneath
Speaker 1: the floor.
Speaker 2: This is the plot of a story by the American
Speaker 2: writer Edgar Allan Poe. It is called The tell Tale Heart.
Speaker 2: Poe was well known for his strange and sometimes violent stories.
Speaker 2: He was famous during his life, but people of his
Speaker 2: day often found his work frightening. Some did not approve
Speaker 2: of his work and his lifestyle, but today most recognize
Speaker 2: him as one of the most important writers of the
Speaker 2: English language.
Speaker 1: Today's spotlight is on Edgar Allan Poe.
Speaker 2: Edgar Allan Poe was born in eighteen hundred and nine
Speaker 2: in the city of Boston. Soon after Poe was born,
Speaker 2: his father left the family, then a year later, his
Speaker 2: mother died. These events affected Poe strongly. Soon after, a
Speaker 2: wealthy man named John Allen took Poe in. Alan gave
Speaker 2: Poe an education, but Poe never forgot his mother or
Speaker 2: his life's early sadness.
Speaker 1: As Poe grew up, he began to develop strong emotion.
Speaker 1: He fell in love very easily. He would often become
Speaker 1: sad or angry. These emotions sometimes led him to make
Speaker 1: poor choices. He and John Allen fought often. They came
Speaker 1: to hate each other, and in eighteen thirty five Poe
Speaker 1: married his cousin. Her name was Virginia. She was thirteen
Speaker 1: years old Poe was twenty six.
Speaker 2: But Poe also used these emotions in his writing. When
Speaker 2: he was just eighteen, he published his first book, and
Speaker 2: as he continued to write more people began to notice
Speaker 2: his work. Soon he began working at a journal called
Speaker 2: The Southern Literary Messenger. There he worked as an editor.
Speaker 2: He also published many stories and poems, and in eighteen
Speaker 2: forty five he published his most famous poem. It is
Speaker 2: called The Raven.
Speaker 1: The Raven is both a poem and a story. In it,
Speaker 1: Poe speaks as a man who loses the woman that
Speaker 1: he loves named Lenore. As he mourns, a raven flies
Speaker 1: into his room. This large black bird lands on a
Speaker 1: staf It speaks to him. The man asks the bird
Speaker 1: questions about death. He wonders if he will ever see
Speaker 1: Lenor again. But the raven only answers with one word
Speaker 1: never more. At the end of the poem, poet writes.
Speaker 3: And the raven, never flitting still, is sitting still, is
Speaker 3: sitting on the pallid bust of palace, just above my
Speaker 3: chamber door. And his eyes have all the seeming of
Speaker 3: a demon's that is dreaming. And the lamplight o'er him
Speaker 3: streaming throws his shadow on the floor, and my soul
Speaker 3: from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Speaker 3: shall be lifted nevermore.
Speaker 2: The man speaking in the poem will always be sad
Speaker 2: about Leonore's death. In the poem, the raven becomes sad
Speaker 2: that he will never see her again.
Speaker 1: The raven made Poe famous. Some of his stories may
Speaker 1: have been strange, but people loved his dark imagination and
Speaker 1: they liked that he was different. Poe's work was also
Speaker 1: some of the first of its kind. He wrote what
Speaker 1: is probably the first mystery story. It is called The
Speaker 1: Murders at the Rue Morgue.
Speaker 2: Poe loved people knowing who he was. He loved how
Speaker 2: they saw him as dark, mysterious, and intelligent.
Speaker 1: But Poe had a difficult time in his personal life,
Speaker 1: and this made him famous in some ways he did
Speaker 1: not like. He often used alcohol to deal with mental pressure.
Speaker 1: Sometimes he would drink at his job, and he had
Speaker 1: several very public affairs. Sometimes he could not find work
Speaker 1: because of these scandals. People believed he could not be
Speaker 1: trusted or they did not want to work with someone
Speaker 1: with his personality. He was popular, but he was also
Speaker 1: very poor.
Speaker 2: Then, in eighteen forty seven, Poe's wife died. Her loss
Speaker 2: was very difficult for him. He started drinking even more.
Speaker 2: He had a hard time finishing his work.
Speaker 1: Like the character in The Raven, Poe never really got
Speaker 1: over Virginia's death. His health was also getting worse. Then,
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty nine, Poe traveled to Boston, a city
Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. On October, a man found Poe behind a bar.
Speaker 1: Poe was not thinking clearly, but it was not from alcohol.
Speaker 1: He shouted strange things, and he was not wearing his
Speaker 1: own clothes.
Speaker 2: The man saw that Poe was in trouble. He brought
Speaker 2: him to a hospital. Poe stayed there several days. He
Speaker 2: spoke for hours and hours, but he was not speaking
Speaker 2: to anyone, and what he said made very little sense. Then,
Speaker 2: on the fourth day, Poe died.
Speaker 1: Like many of his stories, Poe's death was a mystery.
Speaker 1: No one knows why he died. No one knows why
Speaker 1: he was not wearing his own clothes when he died.
Speaker 1: He was buried in a simple wood box. Fewer than
Speaker 1: ten people came to his funeral.
Speaker 2: But like the heart in his first story, Poe's work
Speaker 2: lives on over one hundred and fifty years later, people
Speaker 2: continue to talk about his writing. William J. Jacobs is
Speaker 2: an American historian. He wrote a book about Poe. In
Speaker 2: his book, he wrote.
Speaker 4: That others have tried to copy him. They have tried
Speaker 4: to capture in poetry and short stories the fear that
Speaker 4: made him special. But his imagination was like a lonely castle.
Speaker 4: None have ever completely succeeded in climbing its walls. He
Speaker 4: was one of a kind, and it is in Poe's
Speaker 4: difference that he finds his place in literature.
Speaker 1: Have you ever read anything by Edgar Allan Poe? What
Speaker 1: did you like? What did you not like? You can
Speaker 1: leave a comment on our website at www dot Spotlight
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Speaker 1: Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writer of this program was Dan Chrisman. The producer
Speaker 2: was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the
Speaker 2: United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted
Speaker 2: for this program and voiced by Spotlight. No AI or
Speaker 2: artificial intelligence was used in this program. Spotlight programs are written, voiced,
Speaker 2: and produced by real people for real people, no matter
Speaker 2: where in the world they live. This program is called
Speaker 2: Edgar Allen Poe, Master of the Strain.
Speaker 1: We hope you can join us again for the next
Speaker 1: Spotlight program. Goodbye,