A Fan Takes Poetic License

BALTIMORE —  The enigmatic figure who brought the annual birthday tribute of roses and cognac to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave early Friday also left behind a note that has fans of the Baltimore Ravens seeing purple.

Borrowing from Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death,” the note read: “The New York Giants. Darkness and decay and the big blue hold dominion over all.”

Red and blue are the Giants’ colors, and “the big blue” is a team nickname. The Ravens, who take their name from Poe’s most famous poem, meet the Giants Jan. 28 in the Super Bowl.

The note continued with a reference from “The Cask of Amontillado”: “The Baltimore Ravens. A thousand injuries they will suffer. Edgar Allan Poe evermore.”

The stranger emerged from the rain at 2:25 a.m., knelt at Poe’s grave and flashed two thumbs up and departed. The small band who gathered also found blue and red ribbons tied around the bottle.

The graveside tribute at the old Westminster Presbyterian Church dates to 1949, a century after Poe drank himself to death in Baltimore at 40.

No one knows the identity of the so-called Poe Toaster, but the original man in black died in 1998 and his tradition is being carried on by his sons, said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum.

There is no possibility that this was a prank by a Giant fan, since an undisclosed signal is used to prevent copycats, he said.