Painting descriptions

Edgar A. Poe quiz (B1A)

Answer these questions about Edgar Allan Poe. Look for the answers on this website.

1.When and where was we he born?
2. What literary genre did he invent?
3. What had happened in Poe´s life by the age of three?
4. Where does the Allan in his name come from?
5. Was Poe interested in his foster father´s business?
6. How did Poe have to get money while he was studying at the university of Virginia?
7. What did he even have to do to keep warm?
8. Who was Elmira Royster?
9. Why did he leave his foster parents´ house?
10. What´s the name of the first book he published?
11. Who was Maria Clemm?
12.What kind of articles did he write for the Southern Literary Messenger magazine? 
13. Who did Poe marry?
13.  How did Poe try to become famous when he arrived in New York in 1844?
14. What piece of work made Poe famous?
15. How old was Virginia when she died?
16. How was he affected by his wife´s death?
17.  Who was Rufus Griswold?
18.  Edgar A.Poe lived and died in Baltimore. What is the name of the Baltimore Football team? Check it out here. Why that name?
19. Did you know a film based on Poe´s stories and life is going to be released soon?  Watch the trailer here. What´s the name of the film? What can you see hanging from the chimney? Does it remind you of something (It should...).

There will be several secret questions about the plot of the stories by Poe we have worked with. 

Now remember these important dates: June 1 (Friday): quiz on Poe; June 5 (Tuesday): exam on Poe´s stories; June 6 (Wed): picture description exam; June 12, 13 (Tuesday, Wed): interviews.

Picasso´s Guernica

Describe the picture and comment on it.

More on Poe

-Do you know what´s the relation between the city of Baltimore and Edgar A.Poe? Come on, check it in your notes! Good. Now, make a guess: what do you think the name of the Baltimore Football team is? Check it out here.

-Now, watch this special animation of "The Raven" poem...

A scary story (in Poe´s style)

The Burning House
"One day I was walking through the forest with a friend in a stormy and bleak night. We heard the wind whispering: "Don´t drink in the fountain". But we didn´t listen to it. At the end of the forest, we saw a light and we went towards it. Near the path there was a fountain with a lot of ravens perched on the trees around. We were very thristy so we drank from the fountain. Suddenly the ravens attacked us and we fell down. When we woke up we were in a graveyard. We felt dizzy and I thought that the water from the fountain was toxic. Then, a rap under a tomb interrupted my thoughts and I tried to stand up, but something didn´t let me do it. My friend was near me sleeping. Then it started to rain, so I took my friend to a cave that was near. There, we went to sleep. When we soke up we weren´t dizzy, but someone put a rock in the entrance of the cave. We were very frightened, but thanks to some matches that my friends had we entered the cave until it finished in a wall with stairs. We went upstairs and we appeared in a house. We investigated there but there was no one. When we entered the chamber room the fireplace had some embers and then the chamber room door closed. We tried to open the door, but we couldn´t. Some ravens were in a window and when we opened it they entered and the wind closed the window. The ravens entered the fireplace  and suddenly they turned into ghosts. When the sat in the sofas, they burnt and all the house was burning with us inside". (by Alejandro G. and Daniel G.).


The October midnight of a Human-raven
"A midnight during a bleak October, I was standing in the old chamber room at my grandmother´s house when I heard a strange noise coming from the kitchen. I decided to go and see what had happened.
For the first time in my short life I felt weak and my soul within me burning: my grandmother was lying on the floor covered in blood. The window was broken, and for a few seconds I could see a man peering from the dark forest through the window... but he disappeared in the foggy, dark night. On the floor there were some notes about the transformation of a living human being into a raven and some drawings of hearts. I raised my eyes to my grandmother´s heart and the only thing I saw was a deep and stained hollow in the part of my grandmother´s chest, where her soft heart  was supposed to be. In was in a shock and I didn´t understand anything.
I decided to go to explore, because the night was bathed in moonlight in that ember-like and bleak night of that cold October. The hours passed and I found a haunted-house. A light was illuminating one of the windows. In that moment something inside me thought that the man, who was peering from the window when my grandmother died, was standing at the window. A note came from the window: "Dear girl: you should know my story, the story of your grandmother´s death, the story of the human-ravens. the legend says every fifty years, when the full moon is so bright that it can illuminate  almost all the city, a human-raven (a mixture of a raven and a human) can die. Your grandmother was a human-raven. Every night she turned into a raven and in the morning she became human again. I was also a human-raven. In order for a human-raven not to die, it had to collect three human-raven´s hearts and put them under the light of the shiny moon. I decided to take off the the life of three honest raven-women and now...I don´t have any words. I could never live feeling so guilty. My last words in this paper are filled with pain and sorrow". (By Elena R. and Eva B.)

Good work to you all! Did you know a film based on Poe´s stories and life is about to be released? It´s called The Raven (of course). Watch the trailer here.