Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849)

• Edgar Poe was born on 19 January 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of actors Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins (1787-1811) and David Poe (1784-1810). • He had a brother named William

Henry (1807-1831) and sister Rosalie (1811-1874).

• After the death of his parents Edgar was taken in by Frances (d.1829) and John Allan (d.1834), a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Virginia.

• Young Edgar traveled with the Allans to England in 1815 and attended school in Chelsea. • In 1820 he was back in Richmond• In Richmond, he attended the

University of Virginia and studied Latin and poetry.

• While in school he became estranged from his foster father after accumulating gambling debts. • Unable to pay them or support

himself, Poe left school and enlisted in the United States Army where he served for two years.

• When Poe’s foster mother died in 1829 her deathbed wish was honoured by Edgar and stepfather John reconciling, though it was brief. Poe enlisted in the West Point Military Academy but was dismissed a year later.

• He had been writing poetry for some time and in 1827 “Dreams”—Oh! that my young life were a lasting dream! first appeared in the Baltimore North American, the same year his first book Tamerlane and Other Poems was published, at his own expense.

• In 1829 his second book Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems was published.

• The same year Poems (1831) was published• Poe moved to Baltimore to live with his aunt

Maria Clemm, mother of Virginia Eliza Clemm (1822-1847) who would become his wife at the age of thirteen.

• His brother Henry was also living in the Clemm household but he died of tuberculosis soon after Edgar moved in.

• In 1835 he became editor and contributor of the Southern Literary Messenger.

• Virginia and Edgar married in Richmond in 1836 they moved to New York City.

• Poe’s collection of poetry The Raven and Other Poems (1845)

• In their last place of residence, a cottage in the Fordham section of the Bronx in New York City, Virginia died in 1847.

• Poe turned to alcohol more frequently and was purportedly displaying increasingly erratic behavior.

• A year later he became engaged to his teenage sweetheart from Richmond, Elmira Royster.

• In 1849 he embarked on a tour of poetry readings and lecturing, hoping to raise funds so he could start his magazine The Stylus.

• He was found unconscious in the street and admitted to the Washington College Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. • He died soon after, on October 7

1849, and was buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave in the Old Westminster Burying Ground of Baltimore.

• In 1875, Poe’s remains were reinterred with his aunt Maria Clemm’s in the Poe Memorial Grave which stands in the cemetery’s corner at Fayette and Greene Streets.

I am come of a race noted for vigor of fancy and ardor of passion. Men have called me mad; but the question is not settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence – whether much that is glorious – whether all that is profound – does not spring from disease of thought - from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. (Eleonora by Edgar Poe)

ROMANTICISM is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual

movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution. It was partly a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature.

The movement stressed strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, horror and awe—especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories.

Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 38.58 × 29.13 inches, 1818, Oil on canvas, Kunsthalle Hamburg

Romanticism reached beyond the rational and Classicist ideal models to elevate medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be authentically medieval, in an attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar.

Our modern sense of a romantic character may be expressed in Byronic ideals of a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the mores of contemporary society.

Romanticism in music:Ludwig van Beethoven

Niccolo Paganini

Frederic Chopin

Richard Wagner

Romanticism in visual artsThe Wood of the Self-Murderers by William Blake

The Nightmare by John Henry Fuseli

Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix

The Raven (1845)

STYLISTIC POETIC DEVICES• Alliteration - the repetition of a

consonant sound, usually at the beginning of words

• Assonance – the repetition of a vowel sound, usually within words

• Internal rhyme – rhyming of words within a line of poetry, not just at the end of lines

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore--While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door."'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door--Only this and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow;--vainly I had sought to borrowFrom my books surcease of sorrow--sorrow for the lost Lenore--For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore--Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtainThrilled me--filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating"'Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door--Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;This it is and nothing more."

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,"Sir," said I, "or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,That I scarce was sure I heard you"--here I opened wide the door--Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"--Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my sour within me burning,Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before."Surely," said I, "surely that is something at my window lattice;Let me see, then, what there at is and this mystery explore--Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;--'Tis the wind and nothing more.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore--Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,Though its answer little meaning--little relevancy bore;For we cannot help agreeing that no living human beingEver yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door--Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,With such name as "Nevermore."

But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke onlyThat one word, as if its soul in that one word he did outpourNothing farther then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered--Till I scarcely more than muttered: "Other friends have flown before--On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before."Then the bird said "Nevermore."

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,"Doubtless," said I, "what it utters is its only stock and store,Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful DisasterFollowed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore--Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden boreOf 'Never--nevermore.'"

But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linkingFancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore--What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yoreMeant in croaking "Nevermore."

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressingTo the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease recliningOn the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'erShe shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censerSwung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor."Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee--by these angels he hath sent theeRespite--respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!--Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted--On this home by Horror haunted--tell me truly, I implore--Is there--is there balm in Gilead?--tell me--tell me, I implore!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil!--prophet still, if bird or devil!By that Heaven that bends above us--by that God we both adore--Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore--Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore."Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

"Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!" I shrieked, upstarting--"Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!Leave my loneliness unbroken!--quit the bust above my door!Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sittingOn the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreamingAnd the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floorShall be lifted--nevermore!

The Philosophy of Composition

• Composing a poem is a math problem• It’s composed by “a species of fine

frenzy, an ecstatic intuition”• A poem must be written to be read

in one sitting• The length of a poem should be

around 100 lines

• Sadness is the highest manifestation of beauty. Melancholy is the most legitimate of all poetical tones.

• The death of a beautiful woman is the most poetical uses of death, because it closely allies itself with Beauty.

• Raven is the symbol of “mournful and never ending remembrance”.