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Bill, I'm aware that there is a theory that Poe died of rabies and I guess it's somewhat likely. The most popular theory of how he died is the following.
Poe was found unconscious and in obviously bad condition in the morning a day or two after an election. He was taken to the nearby Washington Infirmary and Medical School where he died.
[digression:] That institution, toward the end of the 19th century, became Church Home and Hospital, a public hospital and an old-age home for "decayed gentlewomen" which worked under the auspices of the Episcopal church. My wife is a graduate of the Church Home nursing school. Our second son was born in 1968 at Church Home. When I went to pay the bill (about $350.00 including a hospital stay of about 4 days !!!! Eheu, fugaces!) I saw on the wall behind me a bronze plaque that noted that this was the location of the room where Poe died (it had since been remodeled). The hospital and home are now closed and everything has been razed except that one small building which houses that room. [/digression]
Elections in Baltimore up to and including the Civil War were very rowdy and dirty affairs. It was not uncommon for partisans of one or another candidate to round up any drunks, cripples, or other helpless men they could find, take them to a saloon and get them well liquored up and then trot them around various polling stations (and saloons) so they could vote for their candidate as often as they could before they passed out. It is believed that this is what happened to Poe. He was frail, he drank to excess daily, and would have been easy for an election gang to take over. The theory is that he was grabbed off the street, treated to drinks, then forcibly marched to the polls, to another, more drinks, more marches to the polls until he was no longer coherent or able to stand up, at which point he was dumped in the nearest handy alley or vacant lot. After a day or two he was suffering from exposure and died of pneumonia which the hospital could not cure. That's the Baltimore theory, anyway.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
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Thanks for all that Poe and church background, Bob! 
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El Dorado is the first poem I ever memorized. When I was dating my wife, we went for a walk and I recited every poem I could remember once. We were gone over two hours. I reckon memorizing poems is a stupid pasttime, but no worse than video games or watching football.
I love that particular poem, though, and many times when I was living alone would recite it over and over to myself, like a hymn or a chant. I guess I don't even think it's all 'that' great of a poem - it's just that it's so lyrical - like Dylan Thomas stuff. These guys are addictive. If they had written television jingles, we'd all be zombies.
k
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Joined: Nov 2002
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journeyman
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journeyman
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"I reckon memorizing poems is a stupid pasttime, but no worse than video games or watching football". FF
Excuse me? Memorizing poems a stupid pastime? I would not agree. "...like a hymn or a chant"...yes, rather. How lovely. That words can soothe and inspire, comfort and connect.
I think poetry is a little different from football and videogames! And since you are married to the woman to whom you recited all those words, it seems to have worked out well for you!
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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we went for a walk and I recited every poem I could remember once. We were gone over two hours.
You'd have won my heart, k! :-)
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old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2002
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You'd have won my heart, k!
Mine too! I know, Jackie, I know - you saw him first!
I used to memorise poetry - must get back into it. Hasn't ever won me a partner, alas....quoting some one evening did achieve a different, less romantic, but still pleasing, result, for reasons that remain shrouded in mystery. (Why did it have that effect? I still wonder....)
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