Storyteller brings Poe to life

MARENGO — The old English of an old poet may have confused modern listeners, but the animation of Darrin Crow as he channeled 19th century writer Edgar Allan Poe kept his audience spellbound.

At the request of Friends of the Marengo Public Library, Crow, a professional storyteller, held a full room riveted as he explained Poe’s history in the first-person and recited some of his better-know works.

Crow has been performing this particular piece for 23 years, he said in an interview before the program began.

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“I became a storyteller because I worked in a museum,” said Crow. He worked at Ushers Ferry Historic Village in Cedar Rapids in various roles from the time he was 16.

“The stories about people and old stuff is what I’m excited about,” Crow said.

“Most of my stories are Iowa history, fairy tales, folk tales,” said Crow. In addition to Poe’s works, Crow performs Algernon Blackwood’s “Secret Worship.”

Iowa Valley High School’s Brooke Ness walked her English students over to the library to hear Crow. Her students were winding down a study of Gothic literature, she said.

Crow became familiar with Poe when, on the way home from an event in Ottumwa, he borrowed his older sister’s literature book and discovered “The Cask of Amontillado.”

In the character of Poe, Crow noted that he was abandoned by his father at the age of one; his mother died a year later.

Both of Poe’s parents were actors, and Poe’s foster father, John Allan, never let the boy forget it, assuring him that he’d never be a gentleman because of his unfortunate birth.

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Allan sent Poe to the University of Virginia at Charlottesville when Poe was 17 years old. Everyone kept a pistol and peach brandy, said Crow. And everyone gambled.

But Allen wouldn’t pay Poe’s debts, so at 18, Poe claimed to be 26 so he could join the army. He advanced from private to sergeant major, but he didn’t like the strict rules.

Poe decided he wanted to go to West Point to become an officer. Allan refused to answer Poe’s letters, but an officer got Allan’s consent.

Poe hated West Point too, said Crow. He got himself court marshaled and went to live with his aunt, Maria Clemm. There Poe met Maria’s daughter — and Poe’s cousin — Virginia, who was only 14 when Poe married her.

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“We did have to lie,” said Crow as Poe. Anyone younger than the age of 21 had to have witnesses in order to be married.

Virginia developed tuberculous and died at the age of 24.

With New York in the grips of a cholera epidemic, and Poe’s wife coughing up blood, Poe wrote of the “Masque of the Red Death” in 1842.

Crow described in great detail the rooms in the abbey of Prince Prospero where he and his rich friends hid from death and the entrance of the mysterious guest who brought fear.

“No ordinary figure could arouse such emotion,” said Crow. Nor could a mere mortal bring the kind of death that descended on the abbey.

“Editors began to notice me after that,” said Crow in the person of Poe.

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Poe was prolific, said Crow. Not only did he write short stories and novels, but he wrote articles about “everything under the sun.” He thought himself the smartest person in any room.

Crow recited Poe’s 1846 poem “The Raven,” in which bone-crushing sorrow and remorse take physical form, according to Crow.

Poe made about $5 off “The Raven,” said Crow. Without copyright laws, a writer had no way to ensure he was paid when his work was copied.

“A lot of my writing focuses on a mind that has been broken,” said Crow in the person of Poe. He displayed the madness of the antagonist of “The Tell-Tale Heart.”

“Why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses — not destroyed — not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad? Hearken! and observe how healthily — how calmly I can tell you the whole story.”

While Poe is mostly known for his horror tales, he could also write nonsense. Crow acted with exuberance Poe’s “The Angel of the Odd,” published in 1844. “Most of you won’t recall that I loved comedy,” said Crow (Poe).

Poe used to read his stories — written on long, continuous rolls of paper — to guests at his home. He played leap frog in the yard. “People don’t remember that I laughed. I laughed a lot.”

In 1849 Poe took a boat headed north on business. “I don’t know what happened after I got on the boat,” said Crow.

Poe was found delirious and disheveled at a tavern in Baltimore, Maryland Oct. 6. He recovered briefly, but he died Oct. 9, supposedly of alcohol poisoning. He was 40.

Crow noted that years later when Poe’s symptoms were revisited, they seemed more in line with rabies than alcoholism.

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Crow ended his performance in the words of Poe:

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow —

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.