Do You Know Poe? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Gold

"The Gold-Bug" is an exciting story set on Sullivan's Island in South Carolina. Deciphering cryptic messages had become popular at the time, and the story has a cipher involved in the unfolding of its story. Both Robert Louis Stevenson and O. Henry indicated they were inspired by this pirate's tale.

Answer: Murders

Two murder victims, a sharp sleuth, a razor, a chimney, and an ape: these elements make up the thrilling story of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The character of C. Auguste Dupin has been acknowledged as one of the first literary detectives.

Answer: By the sea

The maiden Annabel Lee lived in a kingdom by the sea. Like many of Poe's maidens, she was both beautiful and dead. Critics have speculated that Poe wrote about the loss of women because he lost many himself, including his mother when he was a baby and his wife when she was only 24. In this poem, the narrator believes the angels took his beloved because she was so beautiful.

Answer: Purloined

"The Purloined Letter" is a short story which again features Poe's detective, C. Auguste Dupin. Poe wrote this story, among others, while trying to make a living as a writer after he failed to secure a government job with the administration of President Tyler. He struggled throughout his life to support himself and his wife.

Answer: Dream

The poem "A Dream Within a Dream" uses the image of grains of sand falling through the narrator's fingers to capture the fleeting nature of life. The poem first appeared in a Boston-based serial titled "The Flag of our Union" in March of 1849.

Answer: Tell-Tale

"The Tell-Tale Heart" is told by an unreliable narrator suffering a mental imbalance. After killing a man, he is certain he can hear the man's heart beating from its dusky grave. The story has been seen in adaptations as varied as films and an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Answer: Pendulum

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a suspenseful story about an unnamed man sentenced to death during the Spanish Inquisition. He loses consciousness, then wakes up strapped on his back to a table. Above him is an image of Father Time, with a real pendulum swinging back and forth, only this pendulum is razor-sharp and is inching toward the man. Can he escape this painful death?

Answer: Red Death

In "The Masque of the Red Death", Prince Prospero and one thousand of his noble friends have quarantined themselves inside an abbey in an attempt not to catch a deadly plague raging mercilessly through the land. Unconcerned about their countrymen dying horribly outside the walls, they use the time to throw parties, including a masquerade ball with one very creepy guest. Stephen King fans may note how the final line of Poe's story -- "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all" -- pops into Jack Torrance's head once in a while, slightly varied: "And the red death held sway over all."

Answer: Nevermore

In "The Raven", a young man is descending into madness after the death of his beloved, Lenore. He's joined by a talking raven who repeats just one word: "Nevermore," making the narrator more crazy than he already was. The magazine "The American Review" paid Poe nine dollars for the rights to publish "The Raven".

Answer: Dreary

"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door-
Only this and nothing more.' "

The first stanza of "The Raven" is a good example of the type of rhyme scheme Poe used for most of the poem: AA,B,CC,CB,B,B. He reportedly was influenced by a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning that he reviewed with high praise.