nocturnal tribute

Of particular note to poets and dreamers and children of the macabre, today marks the 200^th birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, born on this day in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts.  He died under famously tragic and mysterious circumstances in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 7, 1849.

For years now, this day and the occasion of Poe’s birth have found tribute in a fittingly peculiar and elusive tradition.  Each year, as the clock tower strikes midnight over the Westminster Hall and Burying Ground in Baltimore, a mysterious figure cloaked in black, face hooded, carrying a silver-headed cane approaches the church yard and enters the burial ground. 

According to witnesses, the figure wanders the lonesome rows of headstones to Poe’s grave, there opening a bottle of cognac and raising a single toast to the poet himself.  At the ritual’s completion, the visitor lays three black roses at the foot of Poe’s stone.  Though the significance of the roses remains unknown, they are thought to represent Poe, his young bride, Virginia, and her mother, Maria Clemm, all interred on the same grounds.  After laying the roses, the toaster can be seen quietly vacating the cemetery, vanishing into the night.

The curious homage has become an annual tradition, known to locals and Poe enthusiasts the world over.  According to media reports, the visits began in 1949 on the 100^thanniversary of Edgar’s death.  Though the identity of the toaster remains unknown, he has left occasional missives alongside the cognac and roses, including one in the early eighties which cryptically read, “Edgar, I haven’t forgotten you.” 

But in 1993, the toaster left a message mournfully asserting, “The torch shall be passed.”  The following year, consensus holds that the shrouded figure was someone different, and in 1998, a note from the new toaster sadly reported that the original had passed on.

But still the tradition carries forth, year after year, even as eyewitnesses and local reporters gather to observe it, though with tacit agreement that the toaster shall not be approached or disturbed.  And each time, as the sun finally rises, members of the Edgar Allen Poe Society retrieve the roses and half-bottle of cognac for preservation in their museum.

And so the vigil continues…

Early this morning, local media in Baltimore reported that the mysterious figure had visited once more to keep brief company with the restless spirit of the master.

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