Of all the great writers from the past, there is one whose poetic horror stories are known better than any other: Edgar Allan Poe. Even today, his stories of haunting scenarios filled with tortured souls get readers’ hearts hammering in their chests. 

Poe and his work will be the subject of the event Moonlight, Starbright, Poe Night this Friday at the Steward Observatory and Flandrau Science Center and Planetarium from 5-8 p.m. The evening, which is being presented by Literacy Connects, will focus on the connections between Poe’s literary works and his interest in cosmology.

From a telescope viewing to a planetarium show backed by music from Chamber Lab,  the night will also include readings from Poe’s work and theatrical performances by students from Catalina High School. Poe Night is open to the community and is an event unlike any other in its combination of the wonder of the cosmos and the beauty of literature.

In honor of Poe Night, here are a list of some of Poe’s most memorable, beautiful and haunting quotes:

“All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.” – “A Dream Within a Dream”

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” – “The Cask of Amontillado”
“I had walled the monster up within the tomb!” – “The Black Cat”

“During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher.” – “The Fall of the House of Usher”

“Quoth the Raven ‘Nevermore.’” – “The Raven”

“True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad?” – “The Tell-Tale Heart”

“Arousing from the most profound of slumbers, we break the gossamer web of some dream. Yet in a second afterward, (so frail may that web have been) we remember not that we have dreamed.” – “The Pit and the Pendulum”

“We loved with a love that was more than love.” – “Annabel Lee”

“To the tolling of the bells—Of the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells—To the moaning and the groaning of the bells.” – “The Bells”

“I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.” – “The Tell-Tale Heart”

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