Welcome to the fourth episode of celebratepoe – celebrating the life, times, works, and influence of Edgar Allan Poe – America’s Shakespeare. Let’s get back to the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s early life.
Poe’s foster father, John Allan, took his family to Scotland and England when Poe was six years old to establish a branch of the business in Europe. While in England, Poe attended Manor School at Stoke Newington. Later it became the setting for his story William Wilson.
By the way, Stoke Newington today is a charming English town near London, and the home of actress Jean Marsh of Upstairs, Downstairs.
While we do not know exactly what William Shakespeare would have studied, we do know that a schoolboy who went through the school system in England would have certainly gotten an excellent education. Scholars believe that Shakespeare would have begun school at six in the morning each day and would have finished at five o’clock. School began at seven and finished at four in the winter because of the dark nights. The point is that he received an excellent classical education, and a high school graduate in England would know far more about Latin and Greek than a high school graduate today.
Shakespeare obviously received a great deal of education during his early years, and much of that time was spent learning the classics and various rhetorical devices.
The same could be said about Poe in England – scholars know that the subjects Poe studied included geography, spelling and the Catechism of the Church of England. Stoke Newington was run by the Reverend John Bransby. There is little doubt that Poe took classes in Latin and even Greek because Bransby had quite a reputation as a classical scholar.
During the next entry of celebratepoe, I will talk about the writer continuing his education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
During this entry, I would like to talk about two poems by Poe that were written the writer was very young.
The first is rather short and most Poe scholars believe it is really only a fragment – the contents of the rest of the poem are unknown.
Last night, with many cares & toils oppres'd, Weary, I laid me on a couch to rest.
The second is considerably longer, and scholars believe Poe wrote O Tempora!, O Mores! when he was about sixteen, and some people believe it is thbe earliest of Poe’s writings known to exist.
The poem is actual a satire of a clerk by the name of Pitts who was a clerk in one of the leading fashionable dry goods store of Richmond. Pitts was in love with a youthful belle of the period, who afterwards married a prominent Virginia politician and member of Congress. O, Tempora! O, Mores!" was written chiefly for the ridicule of Pitts in the eyes of certain members of the Virginia Legislature, who were then boarding in the same house with him. Of course, all the people lampooned in the poem are largely forgotten, but the poem remains interesting – largely because it is the earliest known work of America’s Shakespeare.
O, TEMPORA! O, MORES!
O, Times! O, Manners! It is my opinion
That you are changing sadly your dominion —
I mean the reign of manners hath long ceased,
For men have none at all, or bad at least;
And as for times, altho' 'tis said by many
The "good old times" were far the worst of any,
Of which sound doctrine l believe each tittle,
Yet still I think these worse than them a little.
I've been a thinking — isn't that the phrase? —
I like your Yankee words and Yankee ways —
I've been a thinking, whether it were best
To take things seriously, or all in jest;
Whether, with grim Heraclitus of yore,
To weep, as he did, till his eyes were sore,
Or rather laugh with him, that queer philosopher,
Democritus of Thrace, who used to toss over
The page of life and grin at the dog-ears,
As though he'd say, "Why, who the devil cares?"
This is a question which, oh heaven, withdraw
The luckless query from a member's claw!
Instead of two sides, Job [Bob] has nearly eight,
Each fit to furnish forth four hours debate.
What shall be done? I'll lay it on the table,
And take the matter up when I'm more able,
And, in the meantime, to prevent all bother,
I'll neither laugh with one, nor cry with t'other,
Nor deal in flatt'ry or aspersions foul,
But, taking one by each hand, merely growl.
Ah, growl, say you, my friend, and pray at what?
Why, really, sir, I almost had forgot —
But, damn it, sir, I deem it a disgrace
That things should stare us boldly in the face,
And daily strut the street with bows and scrapes,
Who would be men by imitating apes.
I beg your pardon, reader, for the oath
The monkeys make me swear, though something loth;
I'm apt to be discursive in my style,
But pray be patient; yet a little while
Will change me, and as politicians do,
I'll mend my manners and my measures too.
Of all the cities — and I've seen no few;
For I have travelled, friend, as well as you —
I don't remember one, upon my soul,
But take it generally upon the whole,
(As members say they like their logick [logic] taken,
Because divided, it may chance be shaken)
So pat, agreeable and vastly proper
As this for a neat, frisky counter-hopper;
Here he may revel to his heart's content,
Flounce like a fish in his own element,
Toss back his fine curls from their forehead fair,
And hop o'er counters with a Vester's air,
Complete at night what he began A.M.,
And having cheated ladies, dance with them;
For, at a ball, what fair one can escape
The pretty little hand that sold her tape,
Or who so cold, so callous to refuse
The youth who cut the ribbon for her shoes!
One of these fish, par excellence the beau —
God help me! — it has been my lot to know,
At least by sight, for I'm a timid man,
And always keep from laughing, if I can;
But speak to him, he'll make you such grimace,
Lord! to be grave exceeds the power of face.
The hearts of all the ladies are with him,
Their bright eyes on his Tom and Jerry brim
And dove-tailed coat, obtained at cost; while then
Those eyes won't turn on anything like men.
His very voice is musical delight,
His form, once seen, becomes a part of sight;
In short, his shirt collar, his look, his tone is
The "beau ideal" fancied for Adonis.
Philosophers have often held dispute
As to the seat of thought in man and brute;
For that the power of thought attends the latter
My friend, the beau, hath made a settled matter,
And spite of all dogmas, current in all ages,
One settled fact is better than ten sages.
For he does think, though I am oft in doubt
If I can tell exactly what about.
Ah, yes! his little foot and ankle trim,
'Tis there the seat of reason lies in him,
A wise philosopher would shake his head,
He then, of course, must shake his foot instead.
At me, in vengeance, shall that foot be shaken —
Another proof of thought, I'm not mistaken —
Because to his cat's eyes I hold a glass,
And let him see himself, a proper ass!
I think he'll take this likeness to himself,
But if he won't, he shall, a stupid elf,
And, lest the guessing throw the fool in fits,
I close the portrait with the name of PITTS.
Edgar Allan Poe was born 199 years ago January 19. I am sure that there are people all over the world who will be remembering his birthday, but I will like to talk briefly about two of the most important events.
On Sunday, January 20, 2008 from 2:00 PM-5:00 PM, the Edgar Allan Poe Museum on 1914 East Main Street in Richmond, Virginia will celebrate the birthday of "America's Shakespeare" with a grand celebration. Admission to the museum and a dramatic performance in the museum's Enchanted Garden are free. There is a nominal fee charged for a walking tour of Poe's Richmond at 2 pm and Shadow's of Shockoe Ghost tour at 4 pm. There will be cake and punch for all who attend!
And what is billed as the world's largest Poe Birthday Celebration will be held in Baltimore on Saturday, January 19 and Sunday, January 20, 2008. On Saturday, the doors open at 6PM with the program beginning at 7PM. On Sunday, the doors open at 3:30PM with the program beginning at 4:30PM.
And from their excellent web page -
“For the first time on our stage we present the story
That changed the course of literary history by introducing a new literary form...the detective story - The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Sarah Helen Whitman, Poe's former fiancé, makes a rare public appearance where she will discuss her romantic but controversial relationship with Eddie.
Direct from his moldy grave, Edgar Allan Poe will haunt the stage with select recitations and comments.
And please check their web site at poecelebration.tripod.com for more specific information.
You can think of these two celebrations as kickoffs to the big 200th anniversary of the writer’s birth on January 19, 2009. I am sure that I will be writing more about this later.
Thank you and have a great week.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Mother's Death, To Helen
Welcome to another blog entry for celebratepoe – celebrating the life, times, works, and influence of Edgar Allan Poe – America’s Shakespeare. Let’s jump right into the story of Edgar Allan Poe’s early life.
When Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, two famous people were born less than a month later on the same day, February 12. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12 in Kentucky, and Charles Darwin was born the same day in England. Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States.
As I mentioned in the last episode, Edgar Allan Poe’s parents separated in 1810. Elizabeth Poe took the two sons, Henry Leonard and Edgar. At first Elizabeth, also known as Eliza, continued her career as a well-respected actress and even had a third child, Rosalie. Unfortunately the delicate Eliza contracted tuberculosis, and rapidly declined in health. On November 29, 1811, a notice appeared in the Richmond, Virginia Enquirer asking for donations in aid of Eliza. It went as follows: TO THE HUMANE HEART. On this night, Mrs. Poe, lingering on the bed of disease and surrounded by her children asks your assistance, and asks it perhaps for the last time. Citizens of Richmond visited her and provided nurses and cooks, but Eliza died on December 8, 1811 when Edgar was just two years old.
William Henry Leonard had been living with his grandparents in Baltimore, and continued to live with them after his mother’s death. Rosalie went to live with the MacKenzies, a family who ran a school in the Richmond area, and Edgar went to live with John and Francis Allan, two theatre patrons from Richmond. Originally from Scotland, John Allan had started a business in Richmond with Charles Ellis called The House of Ellis and Allan. They traded with tobacco and other goods, and apparently the business was quite profitable. At first John Allan did not want to take in Edgar, but finally gave in to his wife’s wishes – although the Allans never formally adopted Edgar. Fanny Allan had been orphaned at the age of ten, which was probably one of the reasons she took in Edgar. We really don’t know a great deal about Edgar’s first years with the Allans and what he thought about being part of a home that was so different from the life of poverty and abandonment that he knew, but when we do know that he went to a Richmond schoolmaster by the name of William Ewing who said that Edgar was charming and liked the school.
I’m sure that the stories of house slaves in the Allan household and the tales told by skippers and sea merchants would have been very influential in the formation of Edgar’s imaginative view of the world. According to the excellent The Poe Decoder web site, “the dead and dying would always have a strong hold over Edgar, as demonstrated by the anecdote that a six-year old Edgar was once ‘seized with terror’ as he passed by a local graveyard, convinced that the spirits of the undead would run after him.” In 1815, when Edgar was six and half years old, his family moved abroad to Scotland and England for five years so that Mr. Allan could expand the business. In a future blog entry, I will go into this important period in Edgar’s development.
Several cities in the United States claim Poe as one of their own. He wrote great works in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and each city can certainly make a case as an important place in the writer’s life. I will certainly talk about his homes a great deal in this podcast. And it is certainly understandably why a city today would claim such a great writer as Poe as one of their own sons. But the writer considered himself a Richmonder. He was very much the Southern gentleman in temperament, and spent more time in Richmond than in any other town. The Allans returned to Richmond after their years in Europe, and Edgar developed a crush on a lady by the name of Jane Stannard, the mother of a childhood friend.
Today I would like to talk about a poem that Poe wrote in 1831 entitled To Helen. Most critics believe that the poem was written about Jane Stannard, and Poe’s memories of her. It is an extremely concise poem – the writer says a lot in just 15 lines. And I apologize that the commentary that I am going into is much longer than the poem itself. (Some of the symbols refer to things that really wouldn’t be common knowledge to most of us today.)
Poe often used a different, even idealized name for a lady when writing a poem about her. And Helen of Troy was esteemed for her beauty. Poe begins the poem by writing “Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicean barks of yore.” He compares the beauty of Helen, with small sailing boats (barks) that took travelers home in ancient times. Then he continues the boat imagery by saying that Helen brought him home to the shores of classical Greece and Rome.
The writer sees Helen as the expression of idealized beauty, both physically and spiritually. She has beautiful hair and a classic face, and the speaker sees Helen as very poised and perfect. He uses such words as ‘gently’, ‘perfumed’, ‘hyacinth hair’, ‘classic face’, ‘statuelike’, and ‘brilliant’. In stanza three, the writer compares Helen (Mrs. Stannard) to Psyche (which means soul.)
Jane Stannard died around the age of thirty-one, and Poe frequently visited her grave in Shockoe Hill Cemetery.
And now To Helen:
————
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfum'd sea,
The weary wayward 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!
I especially like the words from the last two lines – “regions which are holy land”. Here I think “holy land” has at least three meanings – an example of how Poe, like the greatest writers, was a master of using expressions that can be read on different levels –
Here holy land could have
1) a religious connotation– with the holy land of the Bible
2) a mythological connotation – referring to Rome or Athens
3) a geographic and emotional connotation– Richmond as the holy land of Poe’s heart
There is an old belief (which is doubtful) in Richmond, Virginia that the town, like Rome, was built on seven hills. And if you want to start an argument at a party, just ask people WHAT those hills are. Actually, I think it is really stretching things to say that Richmond was built on seven hills, but kids were taught that Richmond was built in the tradition of Rome up until the 1950s. I remember I was driving in Richmond when I was younger, and trying to find an address. I got lost, and asked some firemen in the neighborhood (I thought they would certainly know) where the house was. An older man told me to turn right at the first hill. I went back and forth several times and never saw a hill. I went back to the station, and asked again – to make a long story short, what the older gentlemen considered a “hill,” to me was just a bump in the road. I am from Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley, where we have MOUNTAINS!
When Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, two famous people were born less than a month later on the same day, February 12. Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12 in Kentucky, and Charles Darwin was born the same day in England. Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States.
As I mentioned in the last episode, Edgar Allan Poe’s parents separated in 1810. Elizabeth Poe took the two sons, Henry Leonard and Edgar. At first Elizabeth, also known as Eliza, continued her career as a well-respected actress and even had a third child, Rosalie. Unfortunately the delicate Eliza contracted tuberculosis, and rapidly declined in health. On November 29, 1811, a notice appeared in the Richmond, Virginia Enquirer asking for donations in aid of Eliza. It went as follows: TO THE HUMANE HEART. On this night, Mrs. Poe, lingering on the bed of disease and surrounded by her children asks your assistance, and asks it perhaps for the last time. Citizens of Richmond visited her and provided nurses and cooks, but Eliza died on December 8, 1811 when Edgar was just two years old.
William Henry Leonard had been living with his grandparents in Baltimore, and continued to live with them after his mother’s death. Rosalie went to live with the MacKenzies, a family who ran a school in the Richmond area, and Edgar went to live with John and Francis Allan, two theatre patrons from Richmond. Originally from Scotland, John Allan had started a business in Richmond with Charles Ellis called The House of Ellis and Allan. They traded with tobacco and other goods, and apparently the business was quite profitable. At first John Allan did not want to take in Edgar, but finally gave in to his wife’s wishes – although the Allans never formally adopted Edgar. Fanny Allan had been orphaned at the age of ten, which was probably one of the reasons she took in Edgar. We really don’t know a great deal about Edgar’s first years with the Allans and what he thought about being part of a home that was so different from the life of poverty and abandonment that he knew, but when we do know that he went to a Richmond schoolmaster by the name of William Ewing who said that Edgar was charming and liked the school.
I’m sure that the stories of house slaves in the Allan household and the tales told by skippers and sea merchants would have been very influential in the formation of Edgar’s imaginative view of the world. According to the excellent The Poe Decoder web site, “the dead and dying would always have a strong hold over Edgar, as demonstrated by the anecdote that a six-year old Edgar was once ‘seized with terror’ as he passed by a local graveyard, convinced that the spirits of the undead would run after him.” In 1815, when Edgar was six and half years old, his family moved abroad to Scotland and England for five years so that Mr. Allan could expand the business. In a future blog entry, I will go into this important period in Edgar’s development.
Several cities in the United States claim Poe as one of their own. He wrote great works in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, and each city can certainly make a case as an important place in the writer’s life. I will certainly talk about his homes a great deal in this podcast. And it is certainly understandably why a city today would claim such a great writer as Poe as one of their own sons. But the writer considered himself a Richmonder. He was very much the Southern gentleman in temperament, and spent more time in Richmond than in any other town. The Allans returned to Richmond after their years in Europe, and Edgar developed a crush on a lady by the name of Jane Stannard, the mother of a childhood friend.
Today I would like to talk about a poem that Poe wrote in 1831 entitled To Helen. Most critics believe that the poem was written about Jane Stannard, and Poe’s memories of her. It is an extremely concise poem – the writer says a lot in just 15 lines. And I apologize that the commentary that I am going into is much longer than the poem itself. (Some of the symbols refer to things that really wouldn’t be common knowledge to most of us today.)
Poe often used a different, even idealized name for a lady when writing a poem about her. And Helen of Troy was esteemed for her beauty. Poe begins the poem by writing “Helen, thy beauty is to me / Like those Nicean barks of yore.” He compares the beauty of Helen, with small sailing boats (barks) that took travelers home in ancient times. Then he continues the boat imagery by saying that Helen brought him home to the shores of classical Greece and Rome.
The writer sees Helen as the expression of idealized beauty, both physically and spiritually. She has beautiful hair and a classic face, and the speaker sees Helen as very poised and perfect. He uses such words as ‘gently’, ‘perfumed’, ‘hyacinth hair’, ‘classic face’, ‘statuelike’, and ‘brilliant’. In stanza three, the writer compares Helen (Mrs. Stannard) to Psyche (which means soul.)
Jane Stannard died around the age of thirty-one, and Poe frequently visited her grave in Shockoe Hill Cemetery.
And now To Helen:
————
Helen, thy beauty is to me
Like those Nicean barks of yore,
That gently, o'er a perfum'd sea,
The weary wayward 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!
I especially like the words from the last two lines – “regions which are holy land”. Here I think “holy land” has at least three meanings – an example of how Poe, like the greatest writers, was a master of using expressions that can be read on different levels –
Here holy land could have
1) a religious connotation– with the holy land of the Bible
2) a mythological connotation – referring to Rome or Athens
3) a geographic and emotional connotation– Richmond as the holy land of Poe’s heart
There is an old belief (which is doubtful) in Richmond, Virginia that the town, like Rome, was built on seven hills. And if you want to start an argument at a party, just ask people WHAT those hills are. Actually, I think it is really stretching things to say that Richmond was built on seven hills, but kids were taught that Richmond was built in the tradition of Rome up until the 1950s. I remember I was driving in Richmond when I was younger, and trying to find an address. I got lost, and asked some firemen in the neighborhood (I thought they would certainly know) where the house was. An older man told me to turn right at the first hill. I went back and forth several times and never saw a hill. I went back to the station, and asked again – to make a long story short, what the older gentlemen considered a “hill,” to me was just a bump in the road. I am from Staunton in the Shenandoah Valley, where we have MOUNTAINS!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Family, Alone, Christmas With Poe - Part Two
Thanks for reading my blog – and I can see that dealing with the life of Edgar Allan Poe is going to be a great deal of work – but I look forward to the opportunity to learn more about “America’s Shakespeare
But before we get into Edgar’s life, I would like to talk a little about the writer’s family background. And I would like to start with one of the many myths about Edgar Allan Poe’s life – that he watched his mother die in the Richmond Theatre Fire in 1811.
There WAS a terrible fire on the day after Christmas in 1811 - the day of the year when I am writing the script for this podcast. The fire was an extremely dramatic event in the history of Richmond - 72 people died in the fire, including the governor. Monumental Episcopal Church was built on top of the ashes, and the bodies of many of those who died are in a crypt beneath the church. Surrounded by buildings of the Medical College of Virginia today, Monumental Episcopal was no longer used as a church after 1865, and is now owned by the Historic Richmond Foundation.
Edgar was like another creative American genius, the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in that they both made up facts about their lives to make them seem more interesting – stories that were accepted as true for years.
Edgar’s mother DID perform at the Richmond Theatre before her death, and DID die in Richmond, but not at the fire. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at Poe’s background – he was not a person born into luxury, and the poverty he experienced almost all his life influenced his wirings.
Edgar’s grandfather, David Poe, was born in Ireland in the 1740s and died in Baltimore. David Poe’s wife, Elizabeth was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and also died in Baltimore.
Edgar’s father was David Poe, Jr., born in Baltimore – a man who decided to become an actor when he was young instead of going into law like his family wanted. David Jr. later left his wife, Elizabeth, and two children, and we really don’t know where he is buried. Some scholars say that he died in Norfolk, Virginia.
Since we really don’t know that much about David Poe, Jr., it might be informative to look at the life and accomplishments of his wife, Elizabeth Arnold. A talented actress, she was married to the actor Charles Hopkins from 1802 until his death 3 years later.
Elizabeth was 18 years old and completely on her own. She met David Poe Jr., and they were married in 1806. Apparently David was very handsome, but not that talented. She became more and more popular, while he was ridiculed by the critics. She appeared in such Shakespearean roles as Ophelia from Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Cordelia in King Lear, and was considered one of the most promising actresses on the American stage. David was hissed and criticized for mumbling in his parts. He appeared in a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, and a critic wrote that he “mutilated some of his speeches in a most shameful manner.”
Elizabeth was also an excellent singer, and frequently sang the humorous Nobody Coming to Marry Me – a song with which she became associated.
In my opinion, some aspects of the marriage of Elizabeth and David were a little bit like the plot of the movie A Star Is Born – there’s a version with Janet Gaynor and Frederick March, and a version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. But I think the best version is the 1954 A Star Is Born with Judy Garland and James Mason where Judy Garland sings “the man that got away.” With Edgar’s parents, it was the same situation– she became more and more respected, and her husband became less and less popular. Like the husband in A Star Is Born, he couldn’t handle his wife’s success, and resorted to alcohol with tragic results. By the way, James Mason narrates one of the video versions of Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart that I plan to use on a future web site.
David and Elizabeth had two children before he deserted the family – William Henry Leonard, born in 1807, and Edgar, who was born in Boston in January 19, 1809 while Elizabeth was touring in that city. According to Kenneth Silverman’s Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. (the source for much of this material) David Poe’s personal property was assessed in 1808 at less than $300 (today it might be said that he had a net worth of $3000 – not that much at all.) The burdens of poverty, alcoholism, and a family he could not support were too much for him to handle, and Poe’s parents separated in 1810. We are not sure where David went, and his wife took the two children. In a future blog, I will go into Elizabeth’s illness and death in Richmond.
Now I would like to look at one of the writer’s most personal works - the original version of the 1829 poem, Alone – a poem that the writer could have written about his youth. There were actually serious doubts concerning the work’s authenticity, but now it is widely accepted as one of the most revealing of Edgar’s works.
This poem has meant a great deal to many people because so many of us can identify at one time or another with the feelings that Poe touches on in this work. Many people think Alone points to the heartaches of the writer’s childhood, and his feelings of difference. The poem climaxes with the words “of a demon in my view.”
What is this demon? Is it spiritual? Is it alcohol? And by the way, we do not believe that Edgar A. Poe was an alcoholic – he was far too prolific in his writings. But he did have an unnatural reaction to alcohol where he would loose control. So alcohol was therefore like a “demon” to him. Or does “demon” in this poem refer to the cruelty of his foster father John Allan? Does it refer to the writer’s loneliness and despair? Feelings of regret and pain? An uneasy feeling of longing that he cannot define? Like the greatest writers, Poe created works that can be read on so many different levels with multiple meanings.
The original version of Alone (from the
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore website)
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —
Then — in my childhood — in the dawn
Of a most stormy life — was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still —
From the torrent, or the fountain —
From the red cliff of the mountain —
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold —
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by —
From the thunder, and the storm —
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view —
E. A. Poe
The final section of this blog entry entry deals with material on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe – and remember that the Allans, as Episcopalians, went to a church that would have sung Christmas carols until January 6.
Readers of this blog can get the above CD at a greatly reduced price at:
http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0
It may come as a surprise to many of us today to learn that he played the flute. The master of dark stories enjoyed playing the flute. Actually at one time the flute was considered appropriate only for men to play – I know it was thought very unladylike in colonial America for women to play the flute or any wind instrument where there was a danger that they would contort their faces into unladylike positions, and this might negatively affect their marriage prospects. George Washington even writes about this – and ladies of the period played the harpsichord, harp, and later piano.
Edgar Allan Poe played the flute in duets with his teenage sweetheart Elmira Royster from Richmond, while she played the piano on carols such as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Unfortunately Elmira’s father did not approve of her relationship with Edgar, and intercepted their letters to each other while Edgar was at the University of Virginia. Elmira marred a Mr. Shelton, and Edgar married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. Music was always very important to the writer, and he played duets with Virginia Clemm playing the piano. Coventry Carol was especially popular then. One night when Virginia was playing the piano (though some reports say the harp,) she began spitting up blood, and Poe cared for her 5 years until her death. Until her illness, Poe would play the flute almost every night with Virginia. It is not hard to imagine them playing Silent Night.)
While Edgar and Virginia would have definitely celebrated Christmas influenced by the newly emerging Victorian attitudes, such Victorian era Christmas carols as We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear were not published until after Poe’s death.
Thank you for reading this blog entry, and in the near future I intend writing about the writer’s youth, and the poem that he wrote later in his life about his teenage crush. And I would love to hear from you at
celebratepoe@gmail.com
I would like to end blog with the first of many references in this series to the writer’s mysterious death, Years after Virginia’s death, Edgar and Elmira met again. She was now a widow, and Edgar and Elmira rekindled their romance, and were to be married at St. John’s Church in Richmond. But the writer tragically died in Baltimore a few days before their wedding.
I have a podcast to accompany this blog that ends with a fanciful, but sad version of Auld Lang Syne (a Scottish melody by Robert Burns) In this piece I tried to be accurate to the instruments of the writer’s adult world (flute, piano, and harp), emphasize the melody, but also hint at the tragedy in his life. In addition to Poe seeing his wife die after a long period of illness, he experienced his father deserting the family while Poe was a child, Poe’s mother dying when he was two years old, his only brother dying at 39 from alcoholism, being disinherited by John Allan, and constant poverty. The fact that the writer triumphed over the many tragedies in his life to become “America’s Shakespeare” is proof of his genius. If Christmas is a time when man can surpass what it is to be ordinary, Edgar Allan Poe unknowingly celebrated the spirit of Christmas every day. And as we enter a new year with its hopes and opportunities, one cannot help but think that this must have been the way Edgar unconsciously approached each day. The more I study Edgar Allan Poe, the more I see that not only could he write horror stories better than anyone, but was a writer with a deep hope for a better future.
But before we get into Edgar’s life, I would like to talk a little about the writer’s family background. And I would like to start with one of the many myths about Edgar Allan Poe’s life – that he watched his mother die in the Richmond Theatre Fire in 1811.
There WAS a terrible fire on the day after Christmas in 1811 - the day of the year when I am writing the script for this podcast. The fire was an extremely dramatic event in the history of Richmond - 72 people died in the fire, including the governor. Monumental Episcopal Church was built on top of the ashes, and the bodies of many of those who died are in a crypt beneath the church. Surrounded by buildings of the Medical College of Virginia today, Monumental Episcopal was no longer used as a church after 1865, and is now owned by the Historic Richmond Foundation.
Edgar was like another creative American genius, the architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, in that they both made up facts about their lives to make them seem more interesting – stories that were accepted as true for years.
Edgar’s mother DID perform at the Richmond Theatre before her death, and DID die in Richmond, but not at the fire. But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s look at Poe’s background – he was not a person born into luxury, and the poverty he experienced almost all his life influenced his wirings.
Edgar’s grandfather, David Poe, was born in Ireland in the 1740s and died in Baltimore. David Poe’s wife, Elizabeth was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and also died in Baltimore.
Edgar’s father was David Poe, Jr., born in Baltimore – a man who decided to become an actor when he was young instead of going into law like his family wanted. David Jr. later left his wife, Elizabeth, and two children, and we really don’t know where he is buried. Some scholars say that he died in Norfolk, Virginia.
Since we really don’t know that much about David Poe, Jr., it might be informative to look at the life and accomplishments of his wife, Elizabeth Arnold. A talented actress, she was married to the actor Charles Hopkins from 1802 until his death 3 years later.
Elizabeth was 18 years old and completely on her own. She met David Poe Jr., and they were married in 1806. Apparently David was very handsome, but not that talented. She became more and more popular, while he was ridiculed by the critics. She appeared in such Shakespearean roles as Ophelia from Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Cordelia in King Lear, and was considered one of the most promising actresses on the American stage. David was hissed and criticized for mumbling in his parts. He appeared in a production of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, and a critic wrote that he “mutilated some of his speeches in a most shameful manner.”
Elizabeth was also an excellent singer, and frequently sang the humorous Nobody Coming to Marry Me – a song with which she became associated.
In my opinion, some aspects of the marriage of Elizabeth and David were a little bit like the plot of the movie A Star Is Born – there’s a version with Janet Gaynor and Frederick March, and a version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. But I think the best version is the 1954 A Star Is Born with Judy Garland and James Mason where Judy Garland sings “the man that got away.” With Edgar’s parents, it was the same situation– she became more and more respected, and her husband became less and less popular. Like the husband in A Star Is Born, he couldn’t handle his wife’s success, and resorted to alcohol with tragic results. By the way, James Mason narrates one of the video versions of Poe’s The Tell Tale Heart that I plan to use on a future web site.
David and Elizabeth had two children before he deserted the family – William Henry Leonard, born in 1807, and Edgar, who was born in Boston in January 19, 1809 while Elizabeth was touring in that city. According to Kenneth Silverman’s Edgar A. Poe Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. (the source for much of this material) David Poe’s personal property was assessed in 1808 at less than $300 (today it might be said that he had a net worth of $3000 – not that much at all.) The burdens of poverty, alcoholism, and a family he could not support were too much for him to handle, and Poe’s parents separated in 1810. We are not sure where David went, and his wife took the two children. In a future blog, I will go into Elizabeth’s illness and death in Richmond.
Now I would like to look at one of the writer’s most personal works - the original version of the 1829 poem, Alone – a poem that the writer could have written about his youth. There were actually serious doubts concerning the work’s authenticity, but now it is widely accepted as one of the most revealing of Edgar’s works.
This poem has meant a great deal to many people because so many of us can identify at one time or another with the feelings that Poe touches on in this work. Many people think Alone points to the heartaches of the writer’s childhood, and his feelings of difference. The poem climaxes with the words “of a demon in my view.”
What is this demon? Is it spiritual? Is it alcohol? And by the way, we do not believe that Edgar A. Poe was an alcoholic – he was far too prolific in his writings. But he did have an unnatural reaction to alcohol where he would loose control. So alcohol was therefore like a “demon” to him. Or does “demon” in this poem refer to the cruelty of his foster father John Allan? Does it refer to the writer’s loneliness and despair? Feelings of regret and pain? An uneasy feeling of longing that he cannot define? Like the greatest writers, Poe created works that can be read on so many different levels with multiple meanings.
The original version of Alone (from the
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore website)
From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were — I have not seen
As others saw — I could not bring
My passions from a common spring —
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow — I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone —
And all I lov'd — I lov'd alone —
Then — in my childhood — in the dawn
Of a most stormy life — was drawn
From ev'ry depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still —
From the torrent, or the fountain —
From the red cliff of the mountain —
From the sun that 'round me roll'd
In its autumn tint of gold —
From the lightning in the sky
As it pass'd me flying by —
From the thunder, and the storm —
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view —
E. A. Poe
The final section of this blog entry entry deals with material on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe – and remember that the Allans, as Episcopalians, went to a church that would have sung Christmas carols until January 6.
Readers of this blog can get the above CD at a greatly reduced price at:
http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0
It may come as a surprise to many of us today to learn that he played the flute. The master of dark stories enjoyed playing the flute. Actually at one time the flute was considered appropriate only for men to play – I know it was thought very unladylike in colonial America for women to play the flute or any wind instrument where there was a danger that they would contort their faces into unladylike positions, and this might negatively affect their marriage prospects. George Washington even writes about this – and ladies of the period played the harpsichord, harp, and later piano.
Edgar Allan Poe played the flute in duets with his teenage sweetheart Elmira Royster from Richmond, while she played the piano on carols such as God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Unfortunately Elmira’s father did not approve of her relationship with Edgar, and intercepted their letters to each other while Edgar was at the University of Virginia. Elmira marred a Mr. Shelton, and Edgar married his cousin, Virginia Clemm. Music was always very important to the writer, and he played duets with Virginia Clemm playing the piano. Coventry Carol was especially popular then. One night when Virginia was playing the piano (though some reports say the harp,) she began spitting up blood, and Poe cared for her 5 years until her death. Until her illness, Poe would play the flute almost every night with Virginia. It is not hard to imagine them playing Silent Night.)
While Edgar and Virginia would have definitely celebrated Christmas influenced by the newly emerging Victorian attitudes, such Victorian era Christmas carols as We Three Kings, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear were not published until after Poe’s death.
Thank you for reading this blog entry, and in the near future I intend writing about the writer’s youth, and the poem that he wrote later in his life about his teenage crush. And I would love to hear from you at
celebratepoe@gmail.com
I would like to end blog with the first of many references in this series to the writer’s mysterious death, Years after Virginia’s death, Edgar and Elmira met again. She was now a widow, and Edgar and Elmira rekindled their romance, and were to be married at St. John’s Church in Richmond. But the writer tragically died in Baltimore a few days before their wedding.
I have a podcast to accompany this blog that ends with a fanciful, but sad version of Auld Lang Syne (a Scottish melody by Robert Burns) In this piece I tried to be accurate to the instruments of the writer’s adult world (flute, piano, and harp), emphasize the melody, but also hint at the tragedy in his life. In addition to Poe seeing his wife die after a long period of illness, he experienced his father deserting the family while Poe was a child, Poe’s mother dying when he was two years old, his only brother dying at 39 from alcoholism, being disinherited by John Allan, and constant poverty. The fact that the writer triumphed over the many tragedies in his life to become “America’s Shakespeare” is proof of his genius. If Christmas is a time when man can surpass what it is to be ordinary, Edgar Allan Poe unknowingly celebrated the spirit of Christmas every day. And as we enter a new year with its hopes and opportunities, one cannot help but think that this must have been the way Edgar unconsciously approached each day. The more I study Edgar Allan Poe, the more I see that not only could he write horror stories better than anyone, but was a writer with a deep hope for a better future.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe - Part One
You can hear all the music I mention in this blog at
CelebratePoe.podbean.com
The emphasis in this specific blog is probably not what you expect when you think of Poe –I would like to deal with Edgar Allan Poe and Christmas - based on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe. That way I can use the music and not have to worry about getting rights. I thought the CD would be especially appropriate considering the time of year when I am writing this podcast would serve as a good introduction to Poe’ life.
BTW – you can get the CD at:
http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0
And you can see all my CDs for sale at:
http://Kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=111714
Well – enough of that.
There will certainly be time in this blob to concentrate on Poe’s imaginative works, but this entry does NOT focus on dark music that you might associate with a tortured soul. This rest of this blog focuses on period holiday music that Poe undoubtedly knew.
Poe’s parents died when he was young, and John Allan took Poe to raise, even though Poe was not formally adopted. And the young Poe would have joined his family in their pew at Monumental Episcopal Church. Early 19th century Episcopal liturgy had few Christmas songs in the hymnbook, but one carol that Poe would have heard on the church organ was O Come All Ye Faithful.
John Allan inherited $700,000.00 (a sum today that would be worth more than 10 million dollars), so he certainly was able to give young Edgar every advantage. When Poe was six years old, his family moved to England and lived there for five years. It is not hard to imagine Poe listening to English Christmas carols on the harpsichord in England such as I Saw Three Ships. While we do not have exact records, it is highly unlikely that Fanny Allan, as the proper lady of a wealthy family, did not have a harpsichord – an instrument often used in duets with the flute for such melodies as The Holly and the Ivy.
Most historians believe that the two great loves of Poe’s life were Elmira Royster and Virginia Clemm – and both ladies played the piano, an instrument that was beginning to surpass the harpsichord in popularity. We knew that Edgar and Elmira fell in love when they were young, and Elmira frequently played the piano possibly with such carols as Joy to the World, and What Child Is This? for Poe.
In a blog in the near future, I would like to write about the duets that Virginia and Poe had – and I bet you can’t imagine what musical instrument Poe played. So next week will not only have Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe, Part Two – but look at Poe’s earliest years and one of Poe’s most personal poems.
And please email me at celebratepod@gmail.com
I really can’t end this blog without a credit section – thanking some of the sources that are making this podcast possible. I will certainly be going into more detail about my sources in future episodes, but I would like to credit the websites for the Poe Houses or Museums in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Richmond, as well as such wonderful web sites as the House of Usher and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Two books that I have found especially helpful are Edgar A Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman and Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn and Shawn Rosenheim.
CelebratePoe.podbean.com
The emphasis in this specific blog is probably not what you expect when you think of Poe –I would like to deal with Edgar Allan Poe and Christmas - based on my CD Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe. That way I can use the music and not have to worry about getting rights. I thought the CD would be especially appropriate considering the time of year when I am writing this podcast would serve as a good introduction to Poe’ life.
BTW – you can get the CD at:
http://Kunaki.com/Sales.asp?PID=PX00Z72XZ0
And you can see all my CDs for sale at:
http://Kunaki.com/MSales.asp?PublisherId=111714
Well – enough of that.
There will certainly be time in this blob to concentrate on Poe’s imaginative works, but this entry does NOT focus on dark music that you might associate with a tortured soul. This rest of this blog focuses on period holiday music that Poe undoubtedly knew.
Poe’s parents died when he was young, and John Allan took Poe to raise, even though Poe was not formally adopted. And the young Poe would have joined his family in their pew at Monumental Episcopal Church. Early 19th century Episcopal liturgy had few Christmas songs in the hymnbook, but one carol that Poe would have heard on the church organ was O Come All Ye Faithful.
John Allan inherited $700,000.00 (a sum today that would be worth more than 10 million dollars), so he certainly was able to give young Edgar every advantage. When Poe was six years old, his family moved to England and lived there for five years. It is not hard to imagine Poe listening to English Christmas carols on the harpsichord in England such as I Saw Three Ships. While we do not have exact records, it is highly unlikely that Fanny Allan, as the proper lady of a wealthy family, did not have a harpsichord – an instrument often used in duets with the flute for such melodies as The Holly and the Ivy.
Most historians believe that the two great loves of Poe’s life were Elmira Royster and Virginia Clemm – and both ladies played the piano, an instrument that was beginning to surpass the harpsichord in popularity. We knew that Edgar and Elmira fell in love when they were young, and Elmira frequently played the piano possibly with such carols as Joy to the World, and What Child Is This? for Poe.
In a blog in the near future, I would like to write about the duets that Virginia and Poe had – and I bet you can’t imagine what musical instrument Poe played. So next week will not only have Christmas With Edgar Allan Poe, Part Two – but look at Poe’s earliest years and one of Poe’s most personal poems.
And please email me at celebratepod@gmail.com
I really can’t end this blog without a credit section – thanking some of the sources that are making this podcast possible. I will certainly be going into more detail about my sources in future episodes, but I would like to credit the websites for the Poe Houses or Museums in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Richmond, as well as such wonderful web sites as the House of Usher and the Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore. Two books that I have found especially helpful are Edgar A Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance by Kenneth Silverman and Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography by Arthur Hobson Quinn and Shawn Rosenheim.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Why We Should Care About Poe
One reason we should care about Edgar Allan Poe is that 200 years after his birth he is still so widely read, as well as the fact that he means a great deal to so many people. He still speaks to us, often on a very emotional level. Poe was a true genius, who suffered so much in his life that he was able to tap into the dark side of human nature, as well as our dreams. To quote Dr. Harold Bloom, a Yale Professor and one of the world’s leading writers on Shakespeare, “Poe has an uncanny talent for exposing our common nightmares and hysteria lurking beneath our carefully structured lives."
And there is something for everyone in Poe's works. He writes about joy, passion, happiness, humor, despair, jealousy, and fear - basic human emotions to which we can all relate. In his short life, he showed a command of language combined with an incredible imagination.
Like most of us, the first time I read Poe was in high school, and his complex ideas about existence and death were just not part of my world. When we are teens, it is the mystery and the good scare that turns us on to Poe. When I got back into Poe when I was older, I starting seeing things that I previously completely ignored the first time around – I had a different view about life, and a different view about Poe – there was a lot more substance there than I realized.
Edgar Allan Poe invented several genres that had never even existed previously. He is credited with inventing the science fiction story, the first real detective story, was one of America’s first poets, an outstanding literary critic, and many people feel he was the first person to get the short story right - all this under incredibly difficult conditions.
We live in a time of short attention spans, and are used to having entertainment fast and easy to understand. So we might think that Poe is not easy to understand – he takes work. He was classically educated like Shakespeare, and uses a lot of words that we just don’t use today very much.
Poe demands a lot from the reader, but I guess you get out of something what you put into it.
I would like this end this blog entry by quoting again from Dr. Bloom. In expressing how well Shakespeare understood human nature, Blooms writes “Shakespeare reads me better than I read Shakespeare.” I believe the same can be said about Edgar Allan Poe.
And there is something for everyone in Poe's works. He writes about joy, passion, happiness, humor, despair, jealousy, and fear - basic human emotions to which we can all relate. In his short life, he showed a command of language combined with an incredible imagination.
Like most of us, the first time I read Poe was in high school, and his complex ideas about existence and death were just not part of my world. When we are teens, it is the mystery and the good scare that turns us on to Poe. When I got back into Poe when I was older, I starting seeing things that I previously completely ignored the first time around – I had a different view about life, and a different view about Poe – there was a lot more substance there than I realized.
Edgar Allan Poe invented several genres that had never even existed previously. He is credited with inventing the science fiction story, the first real detective story, was one of America’s first poets, an outstanding literary critic, and many people feel he was the first person to get the short story right - all this under incredibly difficult conditions.
We live in a time of short attention spans, and are used to having entertainment fast and easy to understand. So we might think that Poe is not easy to understand – he takes work. He was classically educated like Shakespeare, and uses a lot of words that we just don’t use today very much.
Poe demands a lot from the reader, but I guess you get out of something what you put into it.
I would like this end this blog entry by quoting again from Dr. Bloom. In expressing how well Shakespeare understood human nature, Blooms writes “Shakespeare reads me better than I read Shakespeare.” I believe the same can be said about Edgar Allan Poe.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Introduction
Welcome to the first entry in this blog. To keep me from wandering off topic, I am going to try and stick to one topic throughout this blog - Edgar Allan Poe. I want to celebrate Poe’s life, works, and influence in anticipation of the bicentennial of the birth of America’s Shakespeare. Sections of this blog is a transcript of portions of my podcast - celebratepoe.podbean.com - so hopefully it will not just be the first thing that comes off my head.
My name is George Bartley, and first a little bit of credentials – not that any of that is really important. I majored in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance in grad school at Mary Baldwin in Staunton, Virginia. When I moved to Richmond, Virginia, I got a job at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum – the world’s largest collection of memorabilia associated with the writer – a place whose employees are some of the most wonderful people I have ever met. It was just a short jump from being a Shakespeare nerd to being a Poe nerd - and I hope that by the writer’s 200th birthday, you will stick with me and this blog (hope that is not too big a desire!) to be entertained and learn a great deal about America’s Shakespeare. And as you understand more about Poe as a writer, I think you will learn more will learn more about yourself in the process.
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