Poetry News

The “Poe Toaster” Vigil Ends

By Harriet Staff

According to this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article:

For decades, a mysterious man left three roses and cognac on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave to mark the anniversary of the writer’s birth. But after the visitor, dubbed the “Poe Toaster,” failed to appear two years in a row, Poe fans are planning one last vigil this week before calling an end to the annual Jan. 19 tradition.

Poe House and Museum curator Jeff Jerome, who has kept watch for the “Poe Toaster” since 1978, believes that it’s Poe’s suffering and his lifelong dream to be a poet that people still relate to. While the midnight tribute has a touch of the theatrical, it’s also an honest expression, Mr. Jerome said. Wherever he travels in the world, he said when people find out what he does, they want to know whether the “Poe Toaster” is real.

“It’s such an innocent, such a touching tribute,” Mr. Jerome said.

Thanks for the tip, Melville House.

Posted in Poetry News on Thursday, January 19th, 2012 by Harriet Staff.