Comparing Poe and Whittman Essay - 1619 Words

Comparing Poe and Whittman A successful writer is he who is able to transmit ideas, emotions, and wisdom on to his readers. He is cable of stirring emotions and capturing the readers attention with vivid descriptions and clever dialogues. The writer can even play with the meanings of words and fuse reality with fiction to achieve his goal of taking the reader on a wonderful journey. His tools are but words, yet the art of writing is found in the use of the language to create though-provoking pieces that defy the changing times. Between the lines, voices and images emerge. Not everyone can write effectively and invoke these voices. It is those few who can create certain psychological effects on the reader who can seize him (or†¦show more content†¦The following lines compare their unique styles with the purpose of highlighting their similarities and differences, but above all stressing their originality and expertise. Edgar Allan Poe intrigued many with his often irrational and pessimistic descriptions in his poetry and short stories. He repeatedly wrote about phantasmagoric houses, spirits or shadows, the immoderate consumption of alcohol and opium, and seemingly inhuman characters trapped in the most grotesque and gloomy settings one can possibly imagine. The first line of The Fall of the House of Usher is a prime example of the latter: During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens†¦ (AL1508) His descriptions are so detailed and moving that the reader can actually experience the pain and fear of the characters. Ligeia, the strange and haunting lady in the short story by the same name, is gruesomely described by Poe in the following shocking sentence: Suddenly the colour fled, the pulsation ceased, the lips resumed the expression of dead, and, in an instant afterwards, the whole body took upon itself the icy chillness, the livid hue, the intense rigidity, the sunken outline, and each and all of the loathsome peculiarities of that which has been, for many days, a tenant of the tomb. (AL 1507) Maybe even more alarming is The Imp of the Perverse in which Poe reminds us of