No Cognac and Roses For Poe....

This year marks the first time since 1949 - 1949! - that the Poe Toaster failed to arrive to drink and leave the three red roses and half bottle of cognac for America's Greatest Writer.

Speculation is running high as to why the mystery man known as the Poe Toaster didn't show. Rumours run the gamut from "Did he die?" to "Maybe he has the Flu this year" to "it's over." It is believed that since last year was the 200 anniversary of his birth this would've been the perfect time to end the tradition.

50 people showed up at the cemetery this year to catch a glimpse of the man in black with the wide brimmed hat who makes this annual gift to Poe's grave. In other years, up to a hundred people have shown, some from as far away as Japan. This Poe Toaster thing has grown big and is/was a magnificent "literary" tradition. The people of Baltimore were shocked and saddened that he didn't show this year. It's a quirky thing that has turned into an elegant (albeit it COLD)ritual.

If it's over, we're sad to see it go. Something tells us though that someone will pick up the mantle next year and keep the yearly pilgrimage alive.

"New" lithograph reveals a happier looking Edgar Allen Poe

Hear the mellow wedding-bells,
Golden bells!
What a world of happiness their harmony foretells!
Through the balmy air of night
How they ring out their delight
From the molten-golden notes!
And all in tune,
What a liquid ditty floats
To the turtle-dove that listens, while she gloats
On the moon!
Oh, from out the sounding cells,
What a gust of euphony voluminously wells!
How it swells!
How it dwells
On the Future! how it tells
Of rapture that impels
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells--
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells--
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

2nd verse - "The Bells" - E.A. Poe
Not so Doom and Gloomy - eh?