Poetry for a New World Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Edgar Allen Poe

Poetry for a New World

Walt Whitman

Emily Dickinson

Edgar Allen Poe

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809 – 1849)

The most controversial and most misunderstood literary figure in the history of American literature

Poe was born the son of an American actor and English actress;Poe was orphaned and adopted;Poe attended West Point Military Academy but was discharged;At the age of 27 he married his cousin who was half his age;He loved her dearly but lost her to tuberculosis;He died at the age of 40.

Some facts:

Best known for his poems and short fiction,Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston, Jan. 19, 1809, died Oct. 7, 1849 in Baltimore, deserves more credit than any other writerfor the transformation of the short story from anecdote to art.He virtually created the detective story and perfected the psychological thriller. He also produced some of the most influential literary criticism of his time -- important theoretical statements on poetry and the short story -- and has had a worldwide influence on literature.

Poe embraced Romantic agony. He offered Romantic decadence.( to image despair, decadence, decay)

A master of exploring and employing psychological abnormality. a 19th Freud psychoanalysis

A precursor to modern detective story and horror story

Art for art’s sake (being absolutely independent, emphasis on the poem’s own integrity)(be opposite to Bryant: expresses moral ideas by poetry)

Major Themes Love ---- usually of a mourning man for his deceased beloved. Beauty ---- of a young woman either dying or dead. Death ---- a source of horror. Disintegration, decadence, despair, isolation, boredom, anxiety, the lack of communication---- recurrent themes of 20th century literature

The Achievements of Poe

Poe - a critic with insight

Poe - a great writer of fiction

Poe - a great poet with genius

Poe as a Critic

Poe’s Principles for Short Story Poe’s Poetic Theories

Poe’s Principles for Short Story

The short story must be of such length as to be read

at one sitting----brevity.The very first sentence ought to help to bring out the

“single effect” of the story.A tale should reveal some logical truth and should end with

the last sentence, leaving a sense of finality with the reader.

Poe’s Poetic Theories

The poems should be short , readable at one sitting.Its chief aim is beauty, to produce a feeling of beauty

in the reader. Beauty aims at exciting the sensitive soul

to tears. Thus melancholy is the most legitimate of all

the poetic tones.Poe stresses rhythm, defines true poetry as “the

rhythmical creation of beauty.”

Poe as a Short Story Writer

Theme : disintegration of the selfCharacter: neurotic, dislocated, alienated

Poe, Horror and the Supernatural

A writer of horror stories

Ligeia(1838)Ligeia(1838) "The Masque of the Red Death" "The Black Cat" "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)"The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839)

Poe, Father of Detective Fiction

Poe is the unchallenged creator of the modern detective story. Virtually all of the conventions we recognize today originated in his writings. Arthur Conan Doyle himself acknowledged his debt to Poe.

"Murders in the Rue Morgue" "The Purloined Letter"

Poe as a Poet

To HelenThe RavenAnnabel Lee

To Helen

To Helen

Helen, Thy beauty is to me

like those Nicean barks of yore,

That gentle , o’er a perfumed sea,

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

On desperate seas long wont to roam,

Thy hyacinth hair, Thy classic face,

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home

To the glory that was Greece,

And the grandeur that was Rome.

Lo! In yon brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the region which

Are Holy-land!

To Helen

To Helen

A near-perfect statement of the

Romantics’ ideal love of pure beauty.

Helen

of Troy

Golden Apple

Golden Apple “for the fairest”

Golden Apple

“for the fairest”

Hera - Queen of Olympus

Athena - Goddess of war

Aphrodite - Goddess of love

Paris - Prince of Troy

Helen - Queen of Sparta

The Title of the Poem

The First Allusion

The Unifying Force

AllusionAllusion----references to the ancient beliefs or stories

What does the title of the poem mean to you? What ancient story could it refer to? What words or phrases are direct or indirect references to ancient beliefs and stories? Look up "Naiad"(line 8) and "Psyche"( line 14) in your dictionary. What do these allusions contribute to Helen's meaning in the poem?

To HelenHelen, Thy beauty is to me

like those Nicean barks of yore,

That gentle , o’er a perfumed sea,

The weary, way-worn wanderer bore

To his own native shore.

Nicean Bark

Odysseus (Ulysses) the way-worn wanderer

Odysseus and Fairy

On desperate seas long wont to roam,

Thy hyacinth hair, Thy classic face,

Thy Naiad airs have brought me home

To the glory that was Greece,

And the grandeur that was Rome.

Hyacinth

Naiad - Water Nymph

Greece

Rome

Lo! In yon brilliant window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand,

The agate lamp within thy hand!

Ah, Psyche, from the region which

Are Holy-land!

Statue

Agate lamp

Psyche - “Goddess of Soul”

To HelenIn the first stanza , Helen is compared to a ship.

In the second stanza , Helen is compared to a water nymph.

In the third stanza , Helen is compared to the statue

of Psyche.

Do you think the three comparisons are in consistence?

Conclusion

Poe’s “To Helen” is a controlled lyric cry which

evokes in the mind of every sensitive reader an

idealization of pure, ageless beauty in art.

Rhythmical Pattern and Rime Scheme

The poem is deceptively simple in rhythmical pattern and rime scheme.

Iambic tetrameter

Trimeter

Dimeter

Annabel Lee

Annabel Lee

Written in 1849, two years afterthe death of his wife, the last poem Poe wrote, it has since become one of Poe's most popular works and the culmination of Poe’s lyricstyle in his recurrent theme of theloss of a beautiful and loved woman. An elegy An idealization of Poe’s wife: Virginia

Questions for Consideration

Different from the sense of beauty in To Helen, in Annabel Lee, there is a sense of mournfulness, a sense of idealization of the girl Annabel Lee and her love with the speaker, which is the dominant mood throughout the poem. How is it achieved?

IT was many and many a year ago,     In a kingdom by the sea,That a maiden there lived whom you may know     By the name of Annabel Lee;And this maiden she lived with no other thought     Than to love and be loved by me.

Annabel Lee

I was a child and she was a child,     In this kingdom by the sea,But we loved with a love that was more than love,     I and my Annabel Lee;With a love that the wingèd seraphs of heaven     Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,     In this kingdom by the sea,A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling  My beautiful Annabel Lee;So that her highborn kinsmen came     And bore her away from me,To shut her up in a sepulchre     In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,     Went envying her and me;Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,     In this kingdom by the sea)That the wind came out of the cloud by night,   Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love     Of those who were older than we,     Of many far wiser than we;And neither the angels in heaven above,   Nor the demons down under the sea,Can ever dissever my soul from the soul     Of the beautiful Annabel Lee:

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams     Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;   And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes     Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,     In her sepulchre there by the sea,   In her tomb by the sounding sea.

AssonanceResemblance or similarity in sound between vowels followed by different consonants in two or more stressed syllables. Assonance differs from RHYME in that RHYME is a similarity of vowel and consonant. "Lake" and "fake" demonstrate RHYME; "lake" and "fate" assonance.

ConsonanceThe repetition of consonants in words stressed in the same place (but whose vowels differ). Also, a kind of inverted alliteration, in which final consonants, rather than initial or medial ones, repeat in nearby words.

Internal Rhyme: (Rhyme of words within a line of verse. In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white)

It is strengthened by the tension between the sense of idealization and the tragic fate of the girl, the coexistence of opposite, contrary elements.

the Ballad quality

Devices of sound are used to govern the mood within the poem and unify the poem.

Analysis

The Ballad QualityThe opening of the poemRepetition of phrasesIt suggests that the love is such an ideal one that it has become a popular legend which is cherished by people for generations.

Devices of Sound -- the Unifying Force

RepetitionAlliterationConsonanceRhyme

The echoing sound effect---- meaningful and suggestive. (the speaker’s haunting memory of his beloved girl)

Intermittent repetition creating the effect of a lyric refrain (A phrase, verse, or group of verses repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem)

The Use of End Rhyme: The even numbers of line in most stanzas rhyme with a long vowel sound /i: /. It produces a sense of monotony and strengthened the sense of solemnity in the poem. It suggests the inseparableness of the love between speaker and the girl.

The Use of Internal Rhyme: The speaker’s lingering memory of his beloved

Rhyme

Rhythmical Pattern

AnapestIambSpondee

Rhythmical Pattern

alternation of anapestic and iambic rhythms (imitative of the waves of the sea)

Themes

Memory and ReminiscingLove and Death

Style

Six stanzas ranging from six to eight lines each,

with the rhyme pattern differing slightly in each one. Repetition and rhyme creating the qualities of

unity and a pleasing musicality

Using a melodious narrative form, the speaker laments the death, many years ago, of his beloved young bride Annabel Lee. His loss moves him to state that envious angels caused the girl's death to "dissever" (separate) the young marriedcouple. He tells briefly of her funeral and entombment "in her sepulchre ... by the sea." The narrator then reveals that he has been unable to accept their separation. Since her death, he has spent night after night at her tomb. It is an astonishing example of the immortality of young love.

The Raven

This poem has been considered to be one of Poe’s best poetical works and maybe his most famous narrative poem. In the 108 lines, the poet creates an unhappy , unresolved young man, who sits in an elaborately furnished room, trying to find peace from sorrow in his books and conducting acurious dialogue with his midnight visitant, a black , deathlike symbol---- the raven, which is used consciously to convey the bitterness, distress and desperation in the poem.

Features of The Raven

Allusions and imagesVariation of toneRepetition

Poe uses allusions to some classical places, as well

as certain kinds of images to create an unforgettable,

yet inaccessible lover “lost Lenore”, who is often identified

as Virginia, his wife.

Allusions and images

Variation of tone

The Poem is characterized by its dramatic variation

of tone, which starts from mournfulness, and then

progresses to delight , and eventually to madness

under the steady one-word repetition of the talking bird.

Poe also likes to use insistent or cumulative repetition

for effect. In this poem the raven’s repetition “nevermore”

reflects a basic anapestic rhythm that becomes stronger

and more pronounced like a drumbeat as the poem

reaches its emotional climax.

Repetition