Seduced by The Raven

At three o’clock in the afternoon
A boy scans a book-lined schoolhouse room
In search of some weekend fare...
This boy is normally discontent
On Saturday morning, if time is spent
Watching the cartoons blare...
  Before his bus, he hurriedly looks,
  Desperately searching dusty nooks,
  Sorting through not-so-intriguing books
Until his eyes spy there
One that just might work

The author--Edgar Allen Poe--
(“Seems like someone I should know;
He wrote a poem I once read...”)
The Raven has yet again seduced
Some young lad to be introduced
To Edgar, while reading in bed:
  To men in horror--buried alive!
  Pendulums swaying side-to-side!
  Criminal deeds unmasked by cries!
To guilty consciences bled
Until a mind went berserk

And as an autumn moon shines in
His windowpane, the boy begins
To read Poe’s yarns of death...
His reading fraught with nervous pauses:
Any small noise outside causes
The boy to catch his breath...
  How long will Poe make eyelids sore,
  Youngsters staring at the floor,
  Or tree-shadows dancing across the door?
  (Quoth the Raven, evermore!)
Still the youngster comes to the next
Story, and keeps on reading

Much long after the book’s return,
Memories linger and heartbeats burn
Each night, when the covers part...
Scared by a branch’s window-knock,
Unnerved by the ticking of his own clock,
Sometimes the boy awakes with start!
  And thus, Poe’s musings: evil schemes,
  Nightmarish, ghastly fantasies, dreams--
  With readers that echo character’s screams--
Truly, it seems like the Tell-Tale heart
Evermore is beating!