Welcome to our exploration of The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, and Annabel Lee — three of Edgar Allan Poe’s most haunting and enduring works.

In these pieces, Poe invites us to travel through the darker corners of the human mind. The Raven captures the torment of grief and obsession, as a mysterious bird becomes the voice of loss that cannot be silenced. The Tell-Tale Heart plunges into the mind of a narrator who insists on his sanity even as guilt drives him toward confession. Annabel Lee mourns a love so pure and powerful that even death cannot destroy it.

Together, these works reveal Poe’s fascination with love and loss, beauty and death, sanity and madness. He believed that great art could emerge from sorrow — that beauty and melancholy are inseparable. Through his rhythmic language, vivid imagery, and hypnotic repetition, Poe created stories and poems that feel both musical and psychological, blending emotion and intellect in ways that still unsettle readers today.

In the video, Kelley Cody-Grimm will discuss what aspects to look for while listening to Max Grimm read those three classics. There are worksheets, activity sheets, and quizzes that were developed for both Middle and High School students, so each group has its own educational guidelines to follow. Those learning materials are included along with a PDF of all the stories so that students can read along as they listen to Max's narrative. The activity sheets give creative prompts, while the worksheets help students prep for the 15-question quiz that can be given when the student is ready. The quizzes also include a separate answer keys. So sit back and enjoy the first lesson in the Literary Summit - Tell Tale Poe.