Edgar Allan Poe ▶ ✔

"These trifles are collected and republished chiefly with a view to their redemption from the many improvements to which they have been subjected while going at random the “rounds of the press.” I am naturally anxious that what I have written should circulate as I wrote it, if it circulate at all. In defense of my own taste, nevertheless, it is incumbent upon me to say that I think nothing in this volume of much value to the public, or very creditable to myself. Events not to be controlled have prevented me from making, at any time, any serious effort in what, under happier circumstances, would have been the field of my choice. With me poetry has been not a purpose, but a passion; and the passions should be held in reverence: they must not-they can not at will be excited, with an eye to the paltry compensations, or the more paltry commendations, of man-kind."  -- Edgar Allan Poe, 1845

Text from Project Gutenberg, audio from Librivox.  Most images are from The Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe edited by James Hannay, Esq (1852) as found on Archive.org

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This is a small selection of Edgar Allan Poe poems.  Most are his lyrical poems, so they often have a lovely rhyme and rhythm to them.  This selection includes poems ranging from 93 words to 1,129 words for a total of 4,699 words if you write all 12 poems here.  They are listed (sort of, more or less) from simpler to more complex, but defining simpler/more complex is entirely subjective.  A few minor changes to capitalization, punctuation and spelling have been made to better align with modern English punctuation and American English spellings.  Note that as is true of all poems in this practice section, original line endings are NOT preserved; each poem is essentially displayed as one large paragraph.  StenoJig is enabled on each.

All but "To Helen" include audio read by Librivox volunteers; most are in the 120-140rwpm range.  I definitely recommend listening to most of the Librivox readings in this section (especially "The Raven") even if you don't practice to audio files - many of these readings are exceedingly well done!  

Punctuation used in this section:

• Period . 
• Comma ,
• Exclamation !
• Question Mark ?
• Single quote ' ( -PBT, use AES for 's)
• Double quote " (Open KW-GS close KR-GS)
• Semi-colon ; 
• Colon :
• Hyphen - 
• Dash --  (Default stroke is TK-RB) 
• Parentheses (Open PREPB close PR*EPB) 

Names/words not found in Plover's default dictionary:  You will need to create your own brief/outline in your user.json dictionary for these words (or fingerspell them).  I suggest creating a separate "job dictionary".

• Aidenn
• arrant (being notoriously without moderation)
• Auber
• Annabel
• bedight (archaic word meaning to deck out, adorn)
• Eidolon
• elysian
• fanes (archaic word for a church or temple)
• Gilead
• Hamadryad 
• illumine
  
• Lenore
• liquescent
• mien
• Naiad
• nevermore (make new entry or write "never" "more" then use retro remove space stroke or suppress space stroke)
• Pallas
• Petrarcha
• Plutonian
• Porphyrogene
• scintillant
• scoriac (relating to the refuse, dross, or slag left after melting or smelting metal; scum)
• surcease (archaic word for cease, cessation) - this could be written with the stroke for "Sur" and the stroke for "cease",  combined with a force/retro lowercase stroke (or just create new entry).
• Thule
• tuckermanities (Word coined by Poe to mean poetry or literature that is excessively proper or moralist.  He came up with this word in honor(?) of Henry Theodore Tuckerman.)
• Ulalume
• viol (A Renaissance/baroque era six-stringed musical instrument, held vertically and played with a bow.)
• Yaanek

Words that may trip you up:  You won't find entries in your Plover dictionary for these words (and some others), but they can be stroked through the use of prefix/suffix strokes and/or upper/lowercase command strokes.  

• The following words are in Plover's default dictionary but only as uppercase words.  Create new entries or simply use a retro lowercase or force lowercase stroke with the existing entry:
• don (to put on clothes)
• morrow (archaic word for tomorrow).
  
• titanic (massive, huge)
  

• Dian - write a capital D followed by the "ian" suffix stroke:  TK*P/KWRAPB
• Lieth (archaic word meaning to lie with or lying down).  Write "lie" followed by the "th" suffix stroke.  HRAOEU/*T
• Tarns (small mountain lakes).  Write "tar" followed by the "n" suffix stroke with a tucked "z" to make it plural.  TAR/*PBZ (Note that if you try stroking *NS for the "ns" ending, you will actually get "iness"  because *NS is the suffix stroke for "iness" word endings.)

Useful command strokes:  These command strokes are not in the Plover main dictionary by default. If you wish to use them, you'll need to create new entries in your user dictionary using strokes of your choice.

• {*>}  Retroactively lower case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {*-|}  Retroactively upper case first letter of last word stroked
  
• {>}    Force lower case first letter of next word stroked 
  
• {-|}    Force upper case first letter of next word stroked
  
• {*?}   Retroactively inserts a space before last stroke
• {*!}   Retroactively remove space before last word stroked
  

Useful prefix/suffix strokes:

• ^est EFT
• ^en *EPB
• ^ian KWRAPB
• ^st *FT
• ^th *T

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