American Literature: American Literature Week Twelve

A. Continue to Edgar Allan Poe
a. Edgar Allan Poe is the pioneer of American Criticism.
b. He also effects the form of Magic Realism.

Poe and his works

Book Discussion
World Literature Made Simple (P.168-P.169)
a. He loved to write short stories which is composed of psychological abnormality.
b. Four keywords to define the importance of Edgar Allan Poe-- poetry, short story, criticism, and artistic track.
c. He's "philosophy of composition" caused "unity of effect".
d. Poe's Poem－"To Helen"

Helen, thy beauty is to me

Like those Nicean barks of yore,

That gently, o'er a perfum'd 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 beauty of fair Greece,

And the grandeur of old Rome.

Lo ! in that little window-niche

How statue-like I see thee stand!

The folded scroll within thy hand —

A Psyche from the regions which

Are Holy land !

>> Metaphor in this poem-- "Helen" represents the "beauty face" of literature. Pryche is a "shining and bright lamp" of classic literature.

Textbook

a. "The Raven" (Poem)-- on P.688-P.691

“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.”

(a) "Nevermore" is an onomatopoeia which sounds like the caw of ravens.
(b) "Prophet" always relates to birds such as John Keats' poem and Shelley's poem. -- on P.690
>> John Keats-- "Ode to Psyche" (poem)

"Thy shrine, thy grove, thy oracle, thy heat

Of pale-mouth'd prophet dreaming."

>> Shelly-- "Ode to the West Wind" (poem)

"The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,

If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

(d) This poem expresses the feeling of floating and unsureness. The following poem expresses the same thing as well.

>> William Wordsworth-- "I wondered lonely as a cloud"

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils"

* "The Raven" is so popular that it was discussed in a movie, "Finding Forrester".

** "The Raven" is also used as the symbol of Baltimore Ravens.

(Wikipedia) (Movie- "The Blind Side")

b. "Annabel Lee" (poem)-- on P.691

"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."

(a) It describes the death of a beauty.

(b) "Highborn kinsmen" represents the Death.

(c) "Sepulchre" is the same as grave.
(d) It's a Ballad.-- It is a narrative poem with musical elements and it would present in a cumulative way such as Poe's "The Raven" and Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

c. "The Fall of the House of Usher" (story)-- on P.702

(a) Keywords-- vacant and eye-like window

d. "The Tell-Tale Heart" (story)

(a) It's a story about a man killed his next-door neighbour, an old man, because of his scary blind eye. However, after he buried the dead body underneath his floor, he can still hear the bumping sound of the old man's heart....

(b) Psychological abnormality