Apple Podcasts 
Spotify 
Spreaker 
Audible 
Castro 
RSS Feed To Her Whose Name Is Written Below by Edgar Allan Poe: Frances Osgood’s Hidden Valentine
Edgar Allan Poe conceals Frances Sargent Osgood’s name inside a playful poetic puzzle that asks readers to find what is written but unseen.
Also associated with the title “A Valentine,” the poem praises its subject while teasing anyone who tries to identify her through an ordinary reading. Poe invokes earlier literary puzzles and tells the reader that the secret is hidden in the words, yet the obvious approaches lead away from the answer.
The construction supplies the key. The first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second, and successive positions across the poem form a diagonal acrostic spelling Frances Sargent Osgood. Sound, meter, and misdirection turn a private name into a public game—one that works differently when heard aloud because the listener must reconstruct the visual pattern afterward.
This reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “To Her Whose Name Is Written Below” highlights the real subject, hidden-name technique, and Valentine connection for listeners seeking Poe poetry, acrostic poems, literary riddles, and the relationship between Poe and Frances Osgood. The original title remains first while the subtitle makes the poem’s distinctive discovery hook clear without reducing its elegance to a keyword list.
This episode is sponsored by HenFlix.com.
🎧 LISTEN NOW and subscribe for spine-tingling horror stories every week!
🎉 Unlock exclusive bonus episodes and support the show on Patreon!
👉 WeeklySpooky.com/Join
📬 Contact Us / Submit Your Horror Story!
- Twitter: @WeeklySpooky
- Facebook: facebook.com/WeeklySpooky
- Email: WeeklySpooky@gmail.com
🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT
1
00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:08.359
One of my favorite memories of scaring
myself as a child was getting a compilation
2
00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:16.760
book of Edgar Allan Poe stories from
my elementary school library. It brought me
3
00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:25.359
so much fear and so much excitement. I remember running home from school with
4
00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:33.359
that book in my backpack as the
sky was dark and a storm was coming.
5
00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:39.960
I was in my childhood living room, but I wasn't alone. I
6
00:00:40.119 --> 00:00:48.000
had a pizza and the books of
Poe. Every so often I'll bring you
7
00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:55.159
a tale of Poe, and I
hope it gives you that scary fun sense,
8
00:00:56.039 --> 00:01:02.119
just the same as it does for
me. When the clock strikes midnight,
9
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:46.680
the story will begin to her whose
name is written below by Edgar Allan
10
00:01:46.799 --> 00:01:53.719
Poe. For her these lines are
penned, whose luminous eyes, bright and
11
00:01:53.799 --> 00:02:00.400
expressive as the stars of Leda,
shall find her own sweet name that testing
12
00:02:00.920 --> 00:02:07.640
lies upon this page, en rapped
from every reader. Search narrowly these words,
13
00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:13.360
which hold a treasure, divine,
a talisman, an amulet that must
14
00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:19.479
be worn at heart. Search well
the measure the words, the letters themselves.
15
00:02:19.879 --> 00:02:23.080
Do not forget the smallest point,
or you may lose your labor.
16
00:02:23.639 --> 00:02:30.080
And yet there is in this no
Gordian knot, which one might not undo
17
00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:36.400
without a saber, if one could
merely comprehend the plot upon the open page
18
00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:42.360
on which are peering such sweet eyes. Now there lies, I say,
19
00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:47.719
perdue, a musical name oft uttered
in the hearing of poets by poets,
20
00:02:49.199 --> 00:02:53.439
for the name is a poet's too. In common sequence, set the letters
21
00:02:53.560 --> 00:03:00.039
lying compose a sound delighting all to
hear. Ah this you'd have no trouble
22
00:03:00.080 --> 00:03:06.520
in decrying, were you not something
of a dunce, my dear. And
23
00:03:06.719 --> 00:03:09.479
now I leave these riddles too their
seer
