Poll | 10/07/2008 12:00 am

Edgar Allan Poe died on this date in 1849. What is your favorite work by Poe?

Read more about: Edgar Allan Poe, In Memoriam, Poetry, Storytelling

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Every time I read it I am chilled by the steely, almost impersonal, quest for revenge based on a presumed affront.

By Oh! My Favorite on 10/07/2008 12:23 am

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What woman with a love of the romantic would not pick Poe’s Annabel Lee? Remember: “Many and many years ago, in the kingdom by the sea …” and then Annabel dies young, but the young couple’s souls still lie intertwined? The imagery of those words has remained with me forever.

By joan larsen on 10/07/2008 12:42 am

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Annabel lee is very good—but generally i don’t like Poe’ssing-songiness myself—his stories still hold up tho—but I much prefer a near- contemporary of his: Stephen Crane whose poetry which is less well known than his novels but is quite good: Each small gleam was a voice, A lantern voice — In little songs of carmine, violet, green, gold. A chorus of colours came over the water; The wondrous leaf-shadow no longer wavered, No pines crooned on the hills, The blue night was elsewhere a silence, When the chorus of colours came over the water, Little songs of carmine, violet, green, gold. Small glowing pebbles Thrown on the dark plane of evening Sing good ballads of God And eternity, with soul’s rest. Little priests, little holy fathers, None can doubt the truth of your hymning, When the marvellous chorus comes over the water, Songs of carmine, violet, green, gold. I Explain the Silvered Passing: I explain the silvered passing of a ship at night, The sweep of each sad lost wave, The dwindling boom of the steel thing’s striving, The little cry of a man to a man, A shadow falling across the greyer night, And the sinking of the small star; Then the waste, the far waste of waters, And the soft lashing of black waves For long and in loneliness. Remember, thou, O ship of love, Thou leavest a far waste of waters, And the soft lashing of black waves For long and in loneliness.

By f p on 10/07/2008 1:09 am

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I can’t remember exactly. So gothic. I read them all in High School thinking it was terribly cool. I guess I would have to say The Cask of Amontillado where the main character gets walled up in a crypt. Claustrophobic anxiety on overdrive.

By Frannie Em on 10/07/2008 1:18 am

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Frannie—I think Poe’s stories hold up well—his poetry however not so well, but then that’s all a matter of taste.

By f p on 10/07/2008 1:23 am

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Frank Once in college my reading got more directed to recommended reading and then Chinese and Japanese literature. Then I started developing very different habits. I would read a southern authors who wrote about the south, so then I would get into that genre. I would stick with genres for awhile then move on. Kind of visiting cultures through fiction. I think I learned more about Asian culture through literature than I did in all my other classes. In the 70’s or 80’s when I had friends that were going to live in Japan for work and they would ask me questions regarding cultural sensitivity, I would give them The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanazaki to read. It was a great illustration of Japanese cultural mores. A little slow, but the rhythm was in pace with relationships within that society. When I think of Poe, there is this place in the back of my head that kind of comes up with a narrative voice telling a story. Sounding almost like the poem you have shared with us. I can’t hear the words, but it is indelibly written on my memory, and the feeling of the story remains, but I cannot remember all of the circumstances. I find that interesting after all these years, there is something still left of it in me.

By Frannie Em on 10/07/2008 12:53 pm

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Yes Frannie—I read by genre in many instances too. Southern writing—depression-era writing- etc. The Makioka Sisters is Japan’s answer to Buddenbrooks imo

By f p on 10/07/2008 1:30 pm

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f p, I was not familiar with the Crane poems, and would love to pull out the phrases like: “Small glowing pebbles thrown on the dark plane of evening”. But speaking of Crane and knowing you have been in war, I am wondering if you agree with his meaning OF The Red Badge of Courage? As to Poe, did you know that what we think was “Annabel Lee” - if I do remember - was a 13 year old girl that Poe married (!) and who died young. I think his tries at love life were not too successful, but interestingly enough he never did cry out “Nevermore”.

By joan larsen on 10/07/2008 1:50 am

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f p - I pulled the quote on Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage: At times he regarded the wounded soldiers in an envious way. He conceived persons with torn bodies to be peculiarly happy. He wished that he, too, had a wound, a red badge of courage.

By joan larsen on 10/07/2008 2:05 am

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Certainly he never knew or ever really asked about wounds or he couldn’t have written the way he did about the wounded. That’s a good question Joan. The wounds in the Civil War were particularly horrific—not until the Iraq war have casualties been so mutilated. Wounds contrary to what I wrote below are not a badges of courage —it’s a horrific thing to happen to any human being. The trauma is immense and some never get over them-. How those men in the Civil War got on with life is something that intrigues me—But I do know one thing—they were different that we are —their belief system was incredibly strong—they walked shoulders hunched and regimented into scything lead that was intolerable—nothing like that experience exists in combat today—though the weapons we have now are even more inhumane and horrific. Interesting point Joan— thank you :-)

By f p on 10/07/2008 2:22 am

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f p, Talking about inhumane and horrific, you might want to look up HEHE in Wikipedia to see the wars between the Germans and the natives in East Africa and Malawi where the chief’s head was brought back to Germany - in late 1800s. YOu might be interested to delve into the German influence and happenings in Africa as its history has assumed great importance and expertise over the years in our family. Frankly, it is rather fascinating reading as well as horrific.

By joan larsen on 10/07/2008 2:48 am

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The Germans and the Belgians in Africa during the 19th century were frankly the worst of the worst. All one has to do is look at Leopold of Belgium and the atrocities in the Congo—the Germans in Malawi and in East Africa were no better—but then neither were the English in Kenya, but at least their atrocities were more a matter of ignorance of tribal customs and upper class idiocy and didn’t involve genocide. You should check out the Hottentots in SW Africa and their slaughter by the Germans: fully 50% of the KhoiKhoi as they called themselves were slaughtered in a genocide of horrendous proportions. European colonization in Africa is a sorry history of horrendous misdeeds and outright butchery. But then even these plae in comparison with the upwards of 2 million Vietnamese dead in our misadventure in SE Asia and now the 1.5 million estimated Iraqi dead for Mr Bush’s splendid little war. Oh yes and let’s look at US history in relation to Native Americans in the 19th Century. A pretty picture indeed.

By f p on 10/07/2008 3:13 am

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“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares.” Joan: The quote is from Contact the film based on Carl Sagan’s book—I think it describes us as a species quite well, quite well indeed.

By f p on 10/07/2008 3:53 am

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Red Badge is a universal—it applies to any confute really and to the experience of conflict—It’s really amazingly prescient book considering Crane never was in the Civil War. Annabel waa that 13 yr old girl her married; her name was Virginia Clemm who died two years later of tuberculosis. Nevermore—interesting word in relation to Poe— and no I don’t believe he ever cried out that one word. But who knows—maybe he did. :-)

By f p on 10/07/2008 2:08 am