Edgar Allen Poe
            
            
            
            
            
             Over 150 years after his death, Edgar Allen Poe is acknowledged as one of the most brilliant and original writers in American literature. His painful life, the violent horrors he created, and his sense of the world of dreams must have contributed to his greatness as a writer. His short-stories and poems are extremely eerie and haunting; they grab the reader's attention and open up their imagination to the horrors unfolding on the pages in front of them. Such compelling stories as "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Fall of the House of Usher" involve the readers in a universe that is at the same time beautiful and grotesque, real and fantastic. The following sample was taken from "The Fall of the House of Usher":
            
             "There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime."
            
             Here, Poe's choice of words is compelling and amazingly profound-"an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness." He creates and expresses a feeling that is obviously awful and chilling; and he does it perfectly. Poe doesn't have to go to great detail explaining this terrifying feeling felt by the narrator; instead, with his use of unique words, he forces the readers to let their imaginations take over.
             His peculiar use of words brings so much depth to this paragraph-they express strong emotion; thus, forcing the readers to feel that same emotion.
            
             With the clever adjectives and nouns that he uses, Poe flirts with the readers' sense. His words paint a picture and a feeling in the readers' minds. The readers are not physically experiencing any of it, but their minds are. Although it is probable that the readers will never experience what he or she is reading, it is easy for them to imagine it happening to the...