Lecture V Poe’s Poetry and Prose

Edgar Allan Poe, an outstanding romantic poet and short-story writer, was one of the first professional writers of America. But in his lifetime he was more popular in Europe than at home. In the USA many readers couldn’t grasp his rich imagination and didn’t understand him. The imagination became for Poe an escape from the actual and a passage to an inner world of a different reality.

Part I Poetry

Poe had first tried his literary fortunes at the age of 18 with a thin book of poems “Tamerlane and Other Poems” (1827), which he expanded into two later editions (1829, 1831), all without receiving any significant recognition. The publication of “The Raven” (1845) brought him a measure of fame, but no increase of income. His poems “Annabel Lee”, “The Bells”, “Ulalume” and “The Raven” are the peak of his poetry.

Poe made it a rule never to write long epic poems. There’s always a harmony between idea and form in his poems. Poe used a lot of symbols and alliteration for sound in his works. His poems with their unreal atmosphere and musical effects had a great influence on the symbolist poets and through them on all modern art. Valery Bryusov translated many of his poems.

Sergey Rakhmaninov was so impressed by “The Bells” that he set it to music.

Part II Prose

Poe turned from poetry to fiction in the hope of making a living. In 1833 his first story “Ms. Found in a Bottle” won him a prize of $50. The only and the most full collection of his short stories “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” was published in 1840.

Poe’s stories may be divided into three types:

- The tales of horror represent a psychological study of anxiety and terror, anger, revenge and other emotions suffered by lone men (“A Descent into the Maelström”, “The Fall of the House of Usher”, “The Black Cat”).

- The detective stories are mathematical at their foundation. Poe had an analytical mind. Poe’s master detective, August Dupin, was the forerunner of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Purloined Letter”, “The Gold Bug”).

- Poe took an interest in the scientific discoveries and experiments of his time, and this is evident in his science fiction (“The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaal”).

Edgar Poe was the most important American poet before Walt Whitman. He is credited with giving the short story its modern form; and the detective story has been traced back to his invention. But Poe’s unique contribution to American literature was the exploration of the inner, often irrational world of the human mind.

Poe’s creative work can be referred to the “dark side” of Romanticism, and through his romantic sadness we feel the pain and grief that the beautiful and poetical was hopelessly absent in the world around him.

Lecture VI

The Flowering of New England (1840-1860)

The American Renaissance