-from Poets of America Poets of America (1885) (1885) FRANCIS THOMPSON.
In nearly all [Poe"s] tales of idealistic terror or beauty, of which the "House of Usher" is an example, the hero is Poe himself; while they constantly revolve round situations suggested by his own history. To consider Poe is to consider these tales, and to consider these tales is to consider Poe....
The tales are vital with a wrongful vitality. They are told by heroes whose sensitive nerves have the preternatural acuteness of initial insanity; colour, sound, scent-every detail of description in their rendering becomes morbidly distinct to us, like the ticking of a clock in the dark. In the "House of Usher" this feature becomes conscious of itself; the hero hears the beating of a woman"s heart while she stands without the closed door. Beauty and terror are alike portentous, "larger than human," like figures in the mist. The landscapes are preterhuman, painted as with fire, and blinded with a light such as only streams from the fountains of the dreaming brain. The heroes live by choice in chambers out of nightmare, where curtains like molten silver fall in cataracts on carpets of burning gold, lighted by coloured flames which writhe from antique lamps, and perfumed from carven censers; on golden tapestries phantasmal figures waver in the rushing of a continuous wind. Amid such surroundings women of unearthly beauty, or the shadow of Poe"s own child-wife, pa.s.s and die, and dying, give rise to tragedies of impermissible terror; the Red Death incarnates itself among the fated revellers; or a man flies through life pursued by the visible presence of himself. Beauty which cannot separate itself from terror, terror haunted by beauty, are the powers which rule this world of an opium-dream.
It is the deliberate turning away of a man from the normal; it is the obsession by the desire for better bread than is made from wheat. When Poe theorises on landscape-gardening, he avows his preference for the artificial style, but must have a "spiritualised" artificiality, an artifice which suggests the more than mortal. Yet this world at which the human heart aches becomes real while we read-there is the genius. The art is admirable in its sureness and delicacy. The imagination has seized these things of beauty and terror with more than the closeness of a poet-with the closeness of a dream; and there is no closeness, either to terror or beauty, so appalling as that of a dream. The scope is strange and narrow, but the mastership is absolute.
-from Academy Academy (September 28, 1901) (September 28, 1901) D. H. LAWRENCE.
Moralists have always wondered helplessly why Poe"s "morbid" tales need have been written. They need to be written because old things need to die and disintegrate, because the old white psyche has to be gradually broken down before anything else can come to pa.s.s.
Man must be stripped even of himself. And it is a painful, sometimes a ghastly process.
-from Studies in Cla.s.sic American Literature Studies in Cla.s.sic American Literature (1923) (1923)
W. H. AUDEN.
I myself cannot remember hearing any poetry before hearing "The Raven" and "The Bells"; and "The Pit and the Pendulum" "The Pit and the Pendulum" was one of the first short stories I ever read. was one of the first short stories I ever read.
-from his introduction to Edgar Allan Poe: Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Prose, Poetry, and Eureka (1950) (1950) Questions 1. Do the sound effects in "The Raven" enhance or impede or perhaps even const.i.tute the meaning of the poem? 1. Do the sound effects in "The Raven" enhance or impede or perhaps even const.i.tute the meaning of the poem?2. Detective stories often have a providential aspect: One feels some outside force working to separate the sheep from the goats. But in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" there is no such force operating. We need Dupin to save Mr. Le Bon ("the Good") and to banish the monster. Has G.o.d taken a break?3. Why do you think Poe made his detective such an odd-ball? Why do you think his orangutan is so unrealistic? It commits its crimes while trying to imitate human behavior. Dupin brags that "most men, in respect to himself, wore windows in their bosoms." Could it be argued that the orangutan is what Dupin sees-a primitive part of us-when he looks through the window to our bosoms?4. Poe wrote that the "most poetic of all themes is the death of a beautiful woman." Is this statement true? Does it prove that Poe is disturbed? Mean-spirited? Does other literature support Poe"s claim?5. One way of understanding supernatural horror fiction is to see the various horrors as metaphors for psychological traits or events: The orangutan, for example, can be interpreted as something in humanity that is murderous and monstrous and primitive. Using this method, how would you read "Ligeia" or "William Wilson"?6. A fellow poet, James Russell Lowell, once said that Poe was "three-fifths of him genius and two-fifths sheer fudge." What do you think?
For Further Reading Other Works by Poe Mabbott, Thomas Ollive, ed. Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969-1978. The "Annals of Poe," in volume 1, are especially illuminating about Poe"s life and career. 3 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969-1978. The "Annals of Poe," in volume 1, are especially illuminating about Poe"s life and career.
Pollin, Burton R., ed. Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Collected Writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Vol. 1: Vol. 1: The Imaginary Voyages. The Imaginary Voyages. Boston: Twayne, 1981. Contains texts of Boston: Twayne, 1981. Contains texts of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," and "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall," and The Journal of Julius Rodman. The Journal of Julius Rodman.
Critical Studies Allen, Michael L. Poe and the British Magazine Tradition. Poe and the British Magazine Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. New York: Oxford University Press, 1969.
Budd, Louis J., and Edwin H. Cady, eds. On Poe: The Best from American Literature. On Poe: The Best from American Literature. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1993. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press, 1993.
Eddings, Dennis W., ed. The Naiad Voice: Essays on Poe"s Satiric Hoaxing. The Naiad Voice: Essays on Poe"s Satiric Hoaxing. Port Washington, NY: a.s.sociated Faculty Press, 1983. Port Washington, NY: a.s.sociated Faculty Press, 1983.
Fisher, Benjamin F. "Poe and the Gothic Tradition." In The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 72-91. edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 72-91.
. The Gothic"s Gothic. The Gothic"s Gothic. New York and London: Garland, 1988. New York and London: Garland, 1988.
Jacobs, Robert D. Poe, Journalist and Critic. Poe, Journalist and Critic. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1969.
Ljungquist, Kent. The Grand and the Fair: Poe"s Landscape Aesthetics and Pictorial Techniques. The Grand and the Fair: Poe"s Landscape Aesthetics and Pictorial Techniques. Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica, 1984. Potomac, MD: Scripta Humanistica, 1984.
Peeples, Scott. Edgar Allan Poe Revisited. Edgar Allan Poe Revisited. New York and London: Twayne Publishers and Prentice Hall, 1998. New York and London: Twayne Publishers and Prentice Hall, 1998.
Ramakrishna, D., ed. Perspectives on Poe. Perspectives on Poe. New Delhi: APC Publications, 1996. New Delhi: APC Publications, 1996.
Silverman, Kenneth, ed. New Essays on Poe"s Major Tales. New Essays on Poe"s Major Tales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Thompson, G. Richard. Poe"s Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales. Poe"s Fiction: Romantic Irony in the Gothic Tales. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1973.
Biographies Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. 1941. Reprint: New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969. Reprint, with a new foreword by Shawn Rosenheim: Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. 1941. Reprint: New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969. Reprint, with a new foreword by Shawn Rosenheim: Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.
Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: HarperCollins, 1991. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.
Thomas, Dwight, and David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Doc.u.mentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. The Poe Log: A Doc.u.mentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1987.
Other Works Cited in the Introduction Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840. 2 vols. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1840.
a Seabird with an extremely wide wingspan and a reputation for unpredictability.Namely; Poe"s use of this word exemplifies his wish to appear erudite.
b And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all G.o.d"s creatures.-Koran (Poe"s note).
c In cla.s.sical mythology, a river in Hades; drinking its water caused one to forget one"s past.
d Islands west of Scotland.
e That is, walls destined to destruction; according to biblical prophecy, "the broad walls of Babylon [an ancient city of Mesopotamia] shall be utterly broken" (Jeremiah 51:58, King James Version).
f "Chaldee" refers to Chaldeans, a people of ancient Babylonia who gave great credence to astrology, divination based on the theory that human and astronomical events are linked.
g In cla.s.sical mythology, Memnon is a son of Eos, the Dawn; the reference is to an ancient statue of Memnon in Thebes, said to produce a musical sound when struck by the first rays of the sun at daybreak (Eos"s "kiss").
h Phantom.
i Ancient name for extreme northern Europe; Poe"s context may imply limits to any endeavor.
j Possibly a reference to vast tracts of huge trees; in cla.s.sical mythology, t.i.tans were primitive G.o.ds of great strength and size.
k Legendary creatures that rob graves and eat the flesh of corpses; see the characterization of them as beneficial creatures in "Ulalume: A Ballad."
l That is, a place of great riches or opportunities; thematically, this poem bears re semblances to Poe"s later poem "Eldorado," in which no known geographical locale, but more likely an emotional or spiritual goal, is suggested.
m Old colloquialism for a shadow created by embers; thus Poe"s context is wonderfully ambiguous, hinting simultaneous everyday and supernatural possibilities.
n In Greek mythology, Pluto, also called Hades, ruled the underworld; Poe"s context combines darkness and despair.
o Something that brings forgetfulness or ends suffering.
p Biblical city known for its manufacture of and commerce in medicinal spices.
q That is, Eden.
r That is, waning or disappearing (literally, growing old).
s Tending to become liquid; melting. Phoenician G.o.ddess of fertility and sensual love. That is, Diana (see note 1), who in cla.s.sical mythology is a.s.sociated with the moon, a cold planet that represents chast.i.ty. That is, a peace that brings forgetfulness (see note on p. 14).
t Or sibyllic, referring to the ancient Greek prophetess Sibyl; the light suggests to the speaker a prophetic sign that he imagines is good.
u Magical.
v Ringing or jingling; Poe used difficult words partly to appear more educated than he was.
w Here, the more traditional, frightening variety, in contrast to those in "Ulalume: A Ballad."
x Far more an element of the mind than an actual geographical place (see note on p. 23); a meeting area for happiness and somberness.
y Legendary mountains (today thought to be Africa"s Ruwenzori Mountains) that suggest distances unattainable by humans.
z Comes from the inability to be alone (French). Poe"s note: Mercier, in "L"an deux mille quatre cent quarante," "L"an deux mille quatre cent quarante," seriously maintains the doctrines of the Metempsychosis [see note 1 of seriously maintains the doctrines of the Metempsychosis [see note 1 of Tales], Tales], and I. D"Israeli says that "no system is so simple and so little repugnant to the understanding." Colonel Ethan Allen, the "Green Mountain Boy," is also said to have been a serious metempsychosist. and I. D"Israeli says that "no system is so simple and so little repugnant to the understanding." Colonel Ethan Allen, the "Green Mountain Boy," is also said to have been a serious metempsychosist.
aa The soul ... resides but once in a corporeal body: for the rest-a horse, a dog, even a human, it is only an intangible phantom of those animals (French).
ab Apparently mad Roman emperor (A.D. 37-41), who was known for his cruel and ruthless acts and who loved horses.
ac French phrases and words: pates a la fois: pates a la fois: pates at that time; pates at that time; sur la Nature. sur la Nature. on the Essence; sur on the Essence; sur l"Ame: l"Ame: on the soul; on the soul; sur l"Esprit: sur l"Esprit: on the Spirit; on the Spirit; omelettes: omelettes: omelets; omelets; fricandeaux: fricandeaux: veal stew; veal stew; litterateur: litterateur: writer; writer; Idee de Bon-Bon: Idee de Bon-Bon: Idea of Bon-Bon"s; Idea of Bon-Bon"s; savants: savants: learned ones. learned ones.
ad Authoritative p.r.o.nouncements (Latin).
ae Hash, or easy transition (French).
af Meaning deductive reasoning (Latin).
ag Meaning reasoning from observed facts, or inductive reasoning (Latin).
ah (Poe"s note).
ai High relief.
aj Under-chef, apprentice chef (French).
ak Agreeable (French).
al Entire ensemble (French).
am Works of Bon-Bon (French).
an Or a la Grecque; a la Grecque; Grecian (French). Grecian (French).
ao Library (French).
ap Mixtures (French).
aq Egg dish featuring cream sauce enriched with truffles and asparagus.
ar Rich omelette with chicken, mushrooms, and ripe olives.
as Pigtail (French).
at Writing instrument.
au "Catholic Ritual" (French)-that is, it is a Roman Catholic Ma.s.s book; but note the subsequent appearance of the t.i.tle, in which it changes to "Regitre des Cond.a.m.nes" "Regitre des Cond.a.m.nes" ("Register of the Condemned [the d.a.m.ned]"). ("Register of the Condemned [the d.a.m.ned]").
av The changes transform the Greek sentence from "the mind is itself" to "the mind is a light."
aw Ils ecrivaient sur la Philosophie (Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca) (Cicero, Lucretius, Seneca) mais c"etait la Philosophie Grecque.- mais c"etait la Philosophie Grecque.-Condorcet (Poe"s note). (Poe"s note).
ax The names in this and the following paragraphs are those of cla.s.sical authors and scientists.
ay To be excited by nothing (Latin).
az Living body (Latin).
ba These names and partial names include renowned villains from legend and history.
bb Quere-Aroue? (Poe"s note). Arouet was the actual name of French writer Voltaire (1694-1778).
bc The epigraph, from seventeenth-century French dramatist Philippe Quinault (1635-1688), translates, "He who has but a moment to live has nothing to conceal."
bd Meaning "extreme skepticism" (referring to the ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrho, known as the father of skepticism); that is, the narrator wants his account to appear realistic.
be Oriental, lightweight coasting ships with sails.
bf That is, a terrific storm; literally, a hot, destructive wind from Asian and African deserts.
bg Old name for Australia.
bh In Scandinavian mythology, a sea monster of enormous size.
bi Old times; antiquity.
bj Three famous ruined cities in the ancient Near East.
bk Excerpt from "Exequy to his Matchless never to be forgotten Friend," by English prelate and poet Henry King (1592-1669); the lines appear again at the conclusion of this tale.
bl Eternal home of the good in cla.s.sical mythology.
bm Style of cla.s.sical architecture developed by Italian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580).
bn Bridge of Sighs (Italian); famous landmark in Venice, over which condemned prisoners were marched.
bo Queen of Thebes in cla.s.sical mythology who, upon the murder of her children, turned to a stone statue that wept perpetually.
bp Or ennui; bored or indifferent.