Lists: 8 Creatures of Edgar Allan Poe

Poe, Edgar Allancredit: U.S. Signal Corps/National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Edgar Allan Poe was an early master of horror. He famously seated its source in the soul, writing "If in many of my productions terror has been the basis, I maintain that terror is not of Germany but of the soul.” His uncanny ability to sound the depths of the human psyche is demonstrated in many of his stories and poems. He lures us in by beginning on a domestic note and pulls us along to end at a fever pitch. His tales are filled with animal metaphor, and animals of one kind or another figure into several stories. Here are a few of the creatures he pictures.

8The penguin

NOVEL: The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

Not only penguins, but albatrosses and various other sea birds are described in this book, though they cannot be said to figure greatly in its plot. Early in the story, however, the narrator also is rescued by a whaling ship called The Penguin.
Poe’s only novel, this book had a far-reaching influence. Scholars have noted similarities between it and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. It is also cited as an influence on the French poet Charles Baudelaire and by French sci-fi writer Jules Verne, who wrote a sequel to the story. Another French writer, Georges Perec (of OuLiPo fame), used the name Arthur Gordon Pym to refer to Poe in his book A Void, which is written entirely without the letter e.

7The writhing worm-like beast

cestodiasisDr. Mae Melvin/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)(Image Number: 1515)

POEM: "The Conqueror Worm."

An odd, brief, but roiling description of a performance watched only by angels that involves mimes or puppets that represent humankind. Unable to control their own destiny, the mimes/puppets are ultimately bloodily consumed by the writhing, worm-like beast. And then the play is over. More than a little disturbing.

6The horse

STORY: "Metzengerstein." (Subtitled "A Tale in Imitation of the German.")

This is a Gothic tale of revenge in which the notion of metempsychosis (the passing of the soul at death into another body) is put forth. In this case, the head of one noble household (von Berlifitzing) is killed by another (Metzengerstein). The soul of the first passes into the body of a horse, which the murderous Metzengerstein ultimately rides to his own death.

5The scarab

STORY: "The Gold-Bug."

This is one of the truly remarkable stories Poe produced, mainly for its use of cryptography. Keep in mind that Poe had been dead for 10 years when Arthur Conan Doyle, who gave us the inimitable Sherlock Holmes, was born. The "gold-bug" of the title is a beetle, or scarab (the word scarabaeus is used in the story) that becomes essential to the discovery of Captain Kidd’s treasure. Poe’s methodology in this story is a wonder saluted even by the master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock.

4The raven

common raven© Clive Watkins/Shutterstock.com

POEM: "The Raven."

This best-known and much memorized poem about a large black bird inexplicably taking up residence in the grieving narrator’s chambers has produced a number of hilarious parodies. One of our favorites is from a collection called The Antic Muse, Charles Edson’s "Ravin’s of Piute Poet Poe." It includes such memorable lines as "In she’d flutter from the gutter with her bitter eyes aglitter." See also "The End of the Raven" by Poe’s cat.

3The moth

STORY: "The Sphinx."

Poe’s "The Sphinx" concerns a man who repairs to the country to avoid the sudden outbreak of cholera in the city. But he is so frightened at the prospect that he thinks he sees in the surrounding countryside a huge and dreadful creature that is intent upon finding and killing him. After he sees the beast not once, but twice, he tells his host, who calmly informs him that his perspective is off. What he has actually seen was a very small moth, a "Death’s-headed Sphinx" (also known as a death’s head hawk moth) at a very close range.

2The orangutan

orangutanPRNewsFoto/Smithsonian National Zoo/AP Images

STORY: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

SPOILER ALERT: It was an orangutan (or, as Poe spelled it, ourang-outang) who committed the murders at the Rue Morgue. And if you haven’t already read the horrific story of Hop-Frog, the jester, you ought to see how Poe employs the orangutan there. (Well, it isn’t actual animals in that instance, but people dressed as them.)

1The cat

STORY: "The Black Cat."

Who can forget her first encounter with "The Black Cat"? Disturbing in so many ways, the story recounts a case of what might be called fatal alcohol syndrome. The narrator’s notable love of animals becomes (under the influence) an irrational bitterness and brutality. Horribly wounded, then brutally murdered—as is the narrator’s wife—the cat has its revenge in the end. (Poe himself, incidentally, had a much-loved cat named Cattarina.)