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Bernard: 1813-1873; Poe: 1809-1849
Prior to civil war and transcendentalism -- A mystical era, belief in hypnosis, mesmerism, seances and talking to the dead
American authors didn't take Poe seriously (not literary -- sensationalist literature. Only Whitman appreciated his writing with its "Nocturnal themes"
Created genres of horror, science fiction, and mystery
Mother, Step-Mom and wife (cousin) died of TB. Many of his stories and poems address the death of a beautiful woman. This may have something to do with the deaths of his mother, cousin bride, and stepmother. He believed that the ideal theme for poetry is Love, the ideal tone Melancholy, and the ideal subject Death.
Poetry Rhythmic, planned in repetitively-rhymed ways
In A Philosophy of Composition or How I Wrote the Raven (1846), Poe outlined his ideas for crafting poems: thought that Poetry had to be created -- that inspiration doesn't just come to someone [not inspired, spontaneous, romantic vision]. Purely strategic.
Because of the Nocturnal nature of his writing, Poe was widely regarded as a "sensationalist", and scorned by most of his peers. Whitman respected him, as did the French; in particular, Baudelaire. Baudelaire called him "the epitome of genius". Ironically, American poets, who did not respect Poe, were influenced by him through poets such as Baudelaire, in whose work were found traces of Poe.
Poe was also a Literary Critic. Had to know a lot about literature. Made very harsh, but accurate judgments.
Created Genres:
Mystery: Rational vs. feeling self (The Tell-Tale Heart); Scientific deduction; World is extremely transparent, everything is a clue to intelligent detective/observer
Science Fiction: Led to exploration of sea and space; Jules Verne; Bradbury
Horror: Still terrifying -- what we really fear; the Collective sub-conscious
Themes tapped into the collective subconsciousÉ physiological nerves
Edgar Allen Poe--A leader of the American Romantic Movement; was well known for his stories' mystery and darkness.
I. Early Life -- Was born in Boston. Father abandoned family in 1810 and his mother died a year later from tuberculosis. Was taken in by John and Frances Allen in Richmond, Virginia, while siblings were taken by other families. Raised in Richmond and for a few years in England--was never fully adopted by family.
Foster father, John, would alternate between lavishing young Poe with gifts and disciplining him severly.
Had the best education avaliable in Richmond, was a prizewinning scholar and athlete. Because of gambling debts attained while he attended University (studing ancient and modern languages), Poe grew estranged from his foster father. Poe quit the University after a year and left Richmond after learning that his sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster had married someone else.
Moved to Boston in 1827, doing jobs as a clerk and newspaper editor. Enlisted in US Army under an assumed name as a private when he was eighteen on May 26, 1827. He published his first collection of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems, while serving at Fort Independence in Boston Harbor--book wasn't recognised. Also stationed at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island in SC--was the same setting for his story "The Gold-Bug". Served for two years and attained the highest rank he could recieve. Wanted to end his five-year enlistment early and was able to do so after finding a replacement for his remaining years.
John P. Kennedy introduced Poe to Thomas W.White the editr of the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond. Poe was established as assistant editor in 1835. Was dischard after being found repeatedly drunk. After promising good behavior, Poe was allowed to return to the paper and remained working there until January 1837. Circulation increased from 700 to 3500. He published several of his poems, stories, and other literary works in this paper. In 1839, Poe became assistant editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine (later to become Grahm's Magazine).
He moved to New York City in 1844 and worked breifly at the Evening Mirror where he published "The Raven". He later became the editor and, eventually, owner, of the Broadway Journal, which later failed in 1846. After the Broadway Journal's downfall, Poe moved to a cottage in the Fordham section of the Bronx. He enjoyed strolling the Fordham University campus and speaking with the students and faculty. The University's belltower inspired him to write "The Bells".
Poe had also planned to start his own journal The Penn, later changed to The Stylus, was never really compleated. His poem "The Raven" appeared in the Evening Mirror on January 29, 1849. It became an instant senstation and made Poe very well known.
Secretly married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, when he returned to Baltimore on September 22, 1835. He later married her in public on May 16, 1836. In 1842, Virginia began bleeding from the mouth--the first sign of tuberculosis. Poe began to drink heavily as his wife grew ill. Virginia died in their cottage at Fordham on January 39, 1847. After his wife's death, Poe attempted to court Sarah Helen Whitman of Providence, Rhode Island. This engagement faild because of Poe's drinking and bizarre behavior. He returned to Richmond and resumed a relationship with his childhood sweetheart, Sarah Elmira Royster.
While working at the Broadway Journal he became involved in a public feud with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
On October 3, 1849, Poe's friend John E. Snodgrass found Poe delirious on the streets of Baltimore. He was taken to the Washington College Hospital where he died early on the morning of October 7th. He was never able to explain how he came to this dire state or why he was found wearing clothes that were not his own.It is said that Poe repeatedly called out the name "Reynolds" right before his death. Poe had suffered from bouts of depression and madness and may have attempted suicide in 1848. The cause of his death was likely tied to alcoholism, drug use, cholera, rabies, tuberculosis, heart disease, and brain congestion. Poems examine -- what's inside us; what makes us tick
The Raven
Cadence, rhyme, not spontaneous
Poe's craftsmanship is evident. The complexity of the lines, rhyming, references, etc. Nothing is out of place or spontaneous.
This poem is about how the pain from the loss of the speaker's love Lenore will never leave him. He will be shadowed by it forever, just as his soul from the raven's shadow "shall be lifted nevermore!"
Theme relates to how people have the desire to forget or move on from the loss of a loved one, while also feeling the need to remember. Sometimes this desire to remember or dwell upon the fate of someone who has died can drive a person mad -- the narrator continues to question the Raven about his lost one even though he knows that the answer will always be the same, this continued questioning is self-destructive. Annabel Lee
Tragic past; Doesn't feel creepy because of rhyme
This poem talks about how even though a person may be dead, s/he can still touch the lives of the living after death. Love continues -- seems like a reverse of The Raven -- in The Raven, the lover can "nevermore" be reunited with his lover, but in Annabel Lee their souls can never be broken apart.
She dies because the angels become jealous. Poe portrays the same obsession with love as in The Raven. Poe's tragic past continues to haunt him, the poem is very rhythmic; collective subconscious -- hints to what is desired inside you. Poe desires a love beyond all. Eldorado (1849)
Here a knight searches all of his life for Eldorado (gold) and never finds it. Eldorado is a place possibly unattainable, or possibly just very difficult to reach.
Keep searching for the desire (what you want)
An entire lifetime spent searching for something that is never found. Perhaps the necessity of an illusion or fantasy that drives life, pushes you onward toward something, even if that something is ultimately unattainable.
This poem's theme relates to how the search for the ultimate wealth, Eldorado, only leads its searcher to "the Valley of the Shadow", or death.
Based on the beginnings of the 1849 gold rush, but was set in the middle ages due to the whole idea of the "knight in shining armor" on a quest. The knight cannot find the gold, and old age comes upon him, but he keeps searching for the desired object. The more real the illusion, the more obtainable.
The Bells
Bells ringing from a church, where people often play out the most important times of their life. (Baptism, marriage, death, etc.)
There is lots of alliteration in this poem. It progresses from happy to a low compared to death. Perhaps this poem shows how one person's pain -- the iron bells -- is another person's pleasure. The ghouls are happy when they hear the iron bells that Poe calls their "king". Perhaps the ghouls worship the pain that these bells represent.
This poem is marking a person's life. In the beginning, the bells are merry and almost magical, like the feelings of youth. Then in the next part, the bells have become merely "mellow" as wedding bells are -- the feelings of young adulthood. As the poem continues into the next two parts, the bells become more menacing, until at the end, the narrator sounds frantic, almost as if frantic at the prospect of nearing death.
Goes from good to bad in the poem by portraying the life process using bells. Different bells guide us through life, showing the moral codes -- baptized, married, funerals. Bells announce everything that goes on. Alone
The poet has a way of seeing the world that is completely different from that of anyone around him. He is not necessarily upset: he almost seems gleeful about his singularity. Perhaps the gift of an artist is that he sees things, and is able to express things, in ways that other people can't. Many artists seem tortured: maybe that is a necessity to being able to express things with passion and emotion that other people simply do not have. To be able to see things that other people do not see.
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Copyright September 29, 2007 Marie M. Furnary All rights reserved.
(from Kathryn, Bailey, & Kelsey)
Poe's work is remarkable in its ability to connect to the "collective unconscious", and strike chords with readers.
Poe believed that poetry must be crafted: (as opposed to flowing, spontaneous, inspired, romantic.) His poems are very controlled, rhythmic, repetitive, rhyming, well-planned. He scorned pastoral themes, broke away from traditional European writing styles -- like Emerson called for an American literature. Very controlled, rhythmic- repetitive poetry using rhythms, rhymes, alliteration, consonance, assonance
Ideal subject -- death
ideal tone -- melancholy
ideal theme -- love
"Nevermore": keep saying it so begins to have no meaning, we now expect that the bird is going to say this. Almost hypnotic
Conceives poet as strategic person
throughout- Repetition evokes feelings of obsession, as if there is no end in sight, he will never get an answer to his questions. The raven's "nevermore" serves as an increasingly unwanted answer to his increasingly obsessive questions.
The rhythm makes the poem feel like it is pounding onwards: he will forever be haunted by thoughts and questions without answers. They overwhelm him.
The rhythm of the poem is beautiful and while poetic, seems completely natural to speak. It is interesting how the speaker is at first uneasy about the tapping. Towards the middle of the poem he is calm and sits thinking with his "head at ease reclining". He then becomes scared and angry and tells the bird -- his pain -- to leave him. We see his acceptance at the end of the poem.
Love -- everyone seeks it, even though they might not know it -- it's in our sub-conscious
Once again, the rhythm of the poem is hypnotic, repetitive, obsessive. It taps into the collective unconscious: desire for love above all else. Annabel Lee has died long ago, but he sleeps by her tomb, cannot stop thinking about her.
People often imagine something -- might come true; Illusion might be most important -- learn more on your way to reach the illusion
The ultimate quest of a lifetime, provides meaning, gives that life texture.
A Knight -- is gallant, determined. Gives the idea more credibility. It is maybe necessary to have a quest, even if the things that happen during pursuit of one goal are more consequential than attaining the goal itself.
The poem is based around sound. It is not visual so much as audible. The differences in the bell tones, the progression from happiness- (birth, marriage) to sadness-(catastrophe, death) can be clearly heard .
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