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Spirits of the Dead: Tales and Poems
Edgar Allan Poe's tales and poems draw the reader into an unsettling world of mystery and fear.In 'The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether', 'A Predicament', 'The Angel of the Odd' and other stories, characters are caught up in macabre situations, often with horrifying results. The poems are full of melancholic beauty whether in the disturbing images of death and events beyond the grave described in 'The Raven' and 'Lenore', or in the hypnotic fantasy of works such as 'The Bells', 'The City in the Sea' and 'Annabel Lee'.Possessed of a powerful, richly inventive imagination, Edgar Allan Poe explored the darkest corners of the human psyche and is recognized as one of the first writers to offer a genuine American voice.
278 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
40 people are currently reading
1910 people want to read
About the author
Edgar Allan Poe
9,904 books28.7k followersThe name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.
The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_al...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
November 16, 2019
I bought a copy of this books some time ago and I reread it periodically. I have loved Poe ever since I had my first taste of him, as an adolescent. How can you not love a writer who practically invented the detective story? A writer who was so ahead of his time? Poe influenced literature in a number of ways and deserved to be read both for his innovative ways as for his obvious writing talent. He really was an excellent writer, who knew how to be subtly ironic in his short stories and magnificently eloquent in his poetry. This collection includes many of Poe's best works: The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mystery of Marie Roget, The Purloined Letter and The Raven. Poe's always a treat to read. Unlike some other famous authors, even Poe's less known stuff does not deserve to be less known. He was an unique talent, that's for sure. Poe's writing is filled with both emotion and intelligence. His best works remain timeless.
August 5, 2009
It seems strange to me that despite being famous for his short stories and detective fiction, that Poe always considered himself a poet. Spirits of the Dead is a collection of such poetry, along with some of Poe's lesser known short stories. Poe's deservedly famous The Raven, The Conqueror Worm and several renderings of Lenore are present, but the rest of the works seem to be characterised by a tedious profusion of obscure references and a deliberatly over bizarre and alienating manner. An odd, rambling collection that is a chore to get through and not recommended for those new to Poe.
October 2, 2015
Edgar Allan Poe...what to say about him?So extrange, so "crazy", so immaginative, so...
The thing I like the most: the style;it is not a "common" horror, it is really special.
The worse thing: he often use different accents or different languages which sometimes get difficult to understand.
The thing I like the most: the style;it is not a "common" horror, it is really special.
The worse thing: he often use different accents or different languages which sometimes get difficult to understand.
October 13, 2019
"Spirits of the Dead"
By Edgar Allan Poe
"Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.
The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.
Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.
The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!"
By Edgar Allan Poe
"Thy soul shall find itself alone
'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.
Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness- for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.
The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.
Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne'er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.
The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!"
October 9, 2011
Poe is ever fascinating, even when his writing seems unfinshed, even when there is something of his genious missing ( as is it at times in this book). However, Poe's is always a treat to read. Unlike some other famous authors, Poe's less known stuff does not deserve to be less known.
October 11, 2016
Rating:3.5
Hmmm...this was okay, maybe even a bit confusing
Hmmm...this was okay, maybe even a bit confusing
July 5, 2022
3.5
Some good stories and poetry in it, but overall a bit... weird.. and confusing, especially some of his lesser known short stories. They were quite funny at times (and I hope this was intended) but also just.. meh.
Some good stories and poetry in it, but overall a bit... weird.. and confusing, especially some of his lesser known short stories. They were quite funny at times (and I hope this was intended) but also just.. meh.
November 3, 2017
Like most, I only knew Poe for his poems and creepy short stories. I had never seen his ironic, satirical side. I read this book to get into the creepy spirit of Halloween. There weren't many creepy tales in it, but it was interesting.
September 12, 2025
2.5 stars. (But Alone gets a million stars as I am biased and have loved that poem since I was a moody teenager.)
January 26, 2024
We're back to the Poe I know, dreary, dark, and bewildering. Yet another work, this time in the form of a five stanza poem in which Poe discusses death. Crazy, I know. This one didn't particularly stand out to me, and I felt the rhyming scheme was weak.
August 2, 2025
Just the spirits of the dead poem is what I’m reviewing.
It’s a weird feeling when coincidences happen to you so obviously. I lost my aunt a few years ago and before she died she said she would watch over us as a monarch butterfly. I saw one today on my window sill and thought of her. Then later today I was bored and use this collection of E.A. Poe’s greatest works and this was the next poem to read in this book. It talks about how we are never truly alone as those who wait for us will see us again although we may not see them.
It’s a weird feeling when coincidences happen to you so obviously. I lost my aunt a few years ago and before she died she said she would watch over us as a monarch butterfly. I saw one today on my window sill and thought of her. Then later today I was bored and use this collection of E.A. Poe’s greatest works and this was the next poem to read in this book. It talks about how we are never truly alone as those who wait for us will see us again although we may not see them.
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August 31, 2009I've read very little of Edgar Allan Poe so far, but I've read the poem "The Valley of Unrest" and how he links death with the life surrounding the grave, is beautiful. Once again, I can't explain clearly what fascinates me, but like Wilde once said: "Art is not morbid. Art can express everything" - Literature, a form of art, in which death can be expressed, and Poe does it brilliantly.
May 20, 2015
This is the book with my favorite poem in it: The Sleeper. The typing is type-writer-like and the thickness of the letters changes all the time, but it's not about the layout - but the content. And it has some pretty cool poems and short stories in it. (:
December 7, 2016
A fear - inducing imagery of life after death
May 30, 2017
I'm not really sure why this poem is called "Spirits of the Dead", because it certainly does not overtly seem to be what the poem is about.
October 31, 2020
Somehow I always have some difficulty to read older books because of the language. This has previously hindered me to read books like Wuthering Heights and The Picture of Dorian Gray. It gave me difficulty to read War of the Worlds and I forser trouble reading The Time Machine and Dracula.
Edgar Allan Poe, being one of my favourite writers because of the works I HAVE read make it harder to confess the amount of work I have not. I skimmed through many poems that just didn’t speak to me and through stories which failed to form in my mind.
I did enjoy many of them, the Raven is one of my all time favourites (especially the way Omnia turned it into a song) and others such as A Dream, Spirits of the Dead, and A Dream Within a Dream did speak to me. I enjoyed some stories such as The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, How to Write a Blackwood Article and the subsequent Predicament and X-ing a Paragraph got a good chuckle out of me, but for the rest I was too exhausted to finish. I didn’t understand the point of The Literary Life of Thingum Bon. Esq.
So I guess this is a dnf for me, after trying really hard, but the use of language is lost on me.
Edgar Allan Poe, being one of my favourite writers because of the works I HAVE read make it harder to confess the amount of work I have not. I skimmed through many poems that just didn’t speak to me and through stories which failed to form in my mind.
I did enjoy many of them, the Raven is one of my all time favourites (especially the way Omnia turned it into a song) and others such as A Dream, Spirits of the Dead, and A Dream Within a Dream did speak to me. I enjoyed some stories such as The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, How to Write a Blackwood Article and the subsequent Predicament and X-ing a Paragraph got a good chuckle out of me, but for the rest I was too exhausted to finish. I didn’t understand the point of The Literary Life of Thingum Bon. Esq.
So I guess this is a dnf for me, after trying really hard, but the use of language is lost on me.
April 14, 2021
Bought: October 2013
Reread: April 2021
My favourite of many EAP collections that I've seen throughout the years. My copy is a paperback with many folds from being abused and thrown in a bag, and many dog-ears to mark my favourite poems. This collection perfectly balances the poetry and the short stories. It took me a while to get into EAP's tales, as I felt that they didn't deliver the sense of foreboding and melancholy that his poetry does. I can safely say this: I was wrong.
(Fave Poems: A Dream Within A Dream, as well as The City in The Sea. I really want a sea themed sleeve some time in my life inspired by the latter poem. Short Stories: It was unsettling to read The Masque of the Red Death during a pandemic. And even more unsettling that it was my favourite.)
Reread: April 2021
My favourite of many EAP collections that I've seen throughout the years. My copy is a paperback with many folds from being abused and thrown in a bag, and many dog-ears to mark my favourite poems. This collection perfectly balances the poetry and the short stories. It took me a while to get into EAP's tales, as I felt that they didn't deliver the sense of foreboding and melancholy that his poetry does. I can safely say this: I was wrong.
(Fave Poems: A Dream Within A Dream, as well as The City in The Sea. I really want a sea themed sleeve some time in my life inspired by the latter poem. Short Stories: It was unsettling to read The Masque of the Red Death during a pandemic. And even more unsettling that it was my favourite.)
April 30, 2024
FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
So this one is another pretty okay poem from Edgar Allan Poe.
I need to say that this might be one of the best poem from Edgar Allan Poe in my opinion.
This poem is short as you can except from a poem. This poem is also very quick to read.
If you are like me or similar to me. You will have a fun time reading this poem and you will find this poem very interesting.
Because of the language in this poem is so old as it is, it makes this poem to even more moody than it actually would be without that old fun English.
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...
So this one is another pretty okay poem from Edgar Allan Poe.
I need to say that this might be one of the best poem from Edgar Allan Poe in my opinion.
This poem is short as you can except from a poem. This poem is also very quick to read.
If you are like me or similar to me. You will have a fun time reading this poem and you will find this poem very interesting.
Because of the language in this poem is so old as it is, it makes this poem to even more moody than it actually would be without that old fun English.
January 7, 2023
“How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!-“
-Spirits of the dead, Edgar Allan Poe
Just want to clarify that this review solely talks about ‘Spirits of the dead’ here - since I couldn’t find any other entries.
The poem talks about how the spirits of the dead (or what people call ancestor spirits in esotericism) surround one not just prior to birth but also after one dies.
This poem has a beautiful blend of gothic and spiritual themes.
A mystery of mysteries!-“
-Spirits of the dead, Edgar Allan Poe
Just want to clarify that this review solely talks about ‘Spirits of the dead’ here - since I couldn’t find any other entries.
The poem talks about how the spirits of the dead (or what people call ancestor spirits in esotericism) surround one not just prior to birth but also after one dies.
This poem has a beautiful blend of gothic and spiritual themes.
December 29, 2019
More poems than tales, actually, and apart from obvious stuff like “The Raven”, it’s more of Poe’s lighter, romantic side. Which is okay at times, but Poe tends to go for the kind of satire that you need degrees in Classic Greek Literature and World History to get the joke. It’s still a bit twisted, but I prefer the horror stories, personally.
September 2, 2020
I can only give this selection roughly 2.5* and not really recommend it. Sure, it's still Poe and you'll find some of his classic poems there, but the rest is pretty boring. The tales in the end of this book made want to put it away as soon as possible. Not even the title and the illustration by Gustave Doré on the front could save it. There are better Poe collections out there, sorry Penguin.
January 25, 2024
"Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy."
Poe has a way with words and this poem is no exception. Walking through the cemetery has him making you feel like there is beauty in both life and death. Simple, sweet, and to the point, there is enjoyment in every word Poe writes. Highly recommended.
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy."
Poe has a way with words and this poem is no exception. Walking through the cemetery has him making you feel like there is beauty in both life and death. Simple, sweet, and to the point, there is enjoyment in every word Poe writes. Highly recommended.
January 26, 2024
This poem was very weird. First, he sees a bunch of souls being expunged from the graves, and then he compares it to dew drops being absorbed by the sun, to these souls being absorbed by God? this poem was very odd, but if you are looking to go more into detail in a short Poe poem, then this would be the correct choice.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2019
4.5 stars. I wasn't impressed with the tales that much. However, I loved the poems a lot.
January 13, 2021
These blurbs on the poems by Poe always start with the famous poem - really - well anyway this was a decent poem.
I love the recorded length here as well - oh well!
Another good Poe.
I love the recorded length here as well - oh well!
Another good Poe.
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April 5, 2022Watch the livestream discussion
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May 29, 2022
This is just about The Spirits of the Dead poem..
Forever this will always be my favorite of Poe's writings. This is what brought me to wanting to read more of his work and I am thankful for it.
Forever this will always be my favorite of Poe's writings. This is what brought me to wanting to read more of his work and I am thankful for it.
November 1, 2022
I read the title poem from a different collection. Beautiful.
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October 12, 2023I finished it!! I finally finished it!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews