The Beauty of Poe and Emerson
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As stated in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Poetic Principle," a concept of beauty can only be achieved through the use of emotion, an "excitement of the soul," a necessary element to any worthwhile poem (Poe 8). Poe's fascination with the mystery of death and the afterlife are often clearly rooted in his poems and provide a basis for himself and the reader to truly experience his concept of beauty. Although also a believer in portraying beauty through poetry, Ralph Waldo Emerson found beauty to be eminent in nature and all things created by the Oversoul. Beauty for Emerson is not an idea or unknown, it is visible all around him.
To Poe beauty
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Poe manifests all of the criteria for "elevating the soul" in the poem "Annabel Lee". In this poem, the speaker begins by expressing the love between him and Annabel Lee in such a manner that you think it is nothing but an innocent love poem. As the poem progresses, its tone changes from that of love to obsession.
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: --
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the side of the sea.
By repeating the phrase "of the beautiful Annabel Lee," Poe creates an obsessive persona of the speaker that can only focus on the beauty of his love and how his soul will never be torn from her. His torment and grief is so severe that spending his nights in the tomb of his love can only relieve his aching heart. His nighttime visits become ritualistic in nature, finding comfort in a corpse, an object that is most certainly not beautiful. Poe makes the speaker find comfort in the death of his love, because true beauty
The two poems “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe and the poem, “i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)” by E E Cummings share the same similarities because they both have the same theme of love. In the poem “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe, the author writes the poem in a very overwhelming and emotional way. In this poem, Poe talks about losing a loved one and having that person taken away from them. Even though the poem is very gruesome and mentions death, it still is very powerful due to the theme of love. In a passionate and determined tone the author states, “But our love was stronger… Nor the demons down under the sea/can ever dissever my soul from the soul/of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 27, 31-33). In the poem “i carry your
“We loved with a love that was more than love” (Poe). Poe’s Annabel Lee portrays a protagonist who is in grievance about the death of his love, Annabel Lee. The poem focuses on an ideal love, one that extended further than physical boundaries. Although the story seems to be told years after loss of the maiden, the tone in the speaker’s voice has a grim emphasis of Annabel’s death, which suggests that it truly does oppress him. Poe does not describe the
In “Annabel Lee”, Edgar Allan Poe, like in many of his stories, describes the death of a beautiful woman. He describes for the reader that the love of him and Annabel Lee was so strong, that the angels in Heaven envied them and this was the cause of her death. It is disputed that the woman named Annabel Lee in this poem, is in real life, Edgar Allen Poe’s wife, Virginia. “Annabel Lee” is a perfect example of how Edgar Allen Poe used romance to illustrate the essence of death. He describes how the love that he had for her was so strong and it ended up causing envy in the angels and they in return took her away from him. The poem illustrates the misery that can be
Poetic Qualities as Signs of Loss in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee”Edgar Allan Poe's classic poem, "Annabel Lee," is a very deep and emotional poem,clearly trying to convey a lot of universal emotion to his reader. During his lifetime, Poe had lost his young wife, his mother, and his stepmother, so in other words, many of the women that Poe had so loved in his life had died, and this was something that had deeply troubled Poe, leading him to an eventual state of depression. In the poem "Annabel Lee," many of these feelings of love and loss that Poe felt towards his wife and other women is all transmitted to the reader.Through the use of various forms of poetic qualities, tone, and imagery, Poe speaks about a universal theme of love and loss, inspired by his own experiences with the women he loved.Throughout the poem Annabel Lee, Poe seems to be utilizing a very dark, menacing,even vengeful sort of tone, and he does this through various means. One of the way he does this is by his word choice. He uses harsh words and phrases like "killing (line 26)," "shut her up,”(line 19) and "dissever my soul" (line 32) to accomplish this. Even though Poe is speaking about his love, he is nevertheless speaking in a very menacing sort of way. The hurt that he feels from her loss has impacted him deeply, he is all consumed by the darkness of her untimely death, as the reader also learns that she was young when she was taken away. This loss has driven the speaker to the point of anger and
“Annabel Lee,” is a poem composed by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s tragic love story begins in a kingdom by the sea. It describes a powerful love that was stopped too soon. The death of a beautiful woman, Annabel Lee, has left her lover mourning her death. Edgar Allan Poe uses archetypes to create a tone of anguish.
The third stanza clarifies what Poe meant when he said the "seraphs coveted" them by stating "this is the reason in the kingdom by the sea that a wind blew out of a cloud at night chilling thy Annabel Lee." By this point we don't know yet what exactly Poe means but we do know the fact that Annabel lee is chilled couldn't be good. Annabel Lee's "high-born kinsmen came and locked her up in a sepulchre in the kingdom by the sea. " Poe's use of the word sepulcher lets us know that
Annabel Lee’s presence is kept alive in his mind through his dreams at night. “For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 34-35). Her eyes are seen by his eyes, every night; her love is seen by his love, as without that, night never comes. “And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes of the beautiful Annabel Lee” (Poe 36-37). For the narrator, nature revolves around this grand feeling that the two lovers share. This goes to show that even nature cannot affect their romance; nothing could, not even death could keep them apart. The romance was not lost at sea and forgotten in the darkness of
Edgar Allen Poe’s use of the first person narrative in The Tell-tale Heart is much more effective than Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of the third person in Young Goodman Brown because the use of the first person in Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart allows the reader to feel the narrator’s panic while the third person narrator in Young Goodman Brown only tells the story and the reader does not feel the main character’s feelings. By telling the story of the Tell Tale Heart in the first person, Poe allows his readers to see the build up of the main characters insanity with the use of language and crazy and rambling dialogue. On the other hand, Hawthorne’s use of the third person simply narrates the story and tells of Brown’s feelings rather than having
For context, Poe is known to set up several instances to which a death of a beautiful woman is either inevitably played out, or said death is being lamented upon. Often times it is the narrator, unnamed, written to mourn, or speak on the behalf, of a dead woman, to which had significant value to them. Either a lover, signifiant other, what have you, the mourner has romantic ties to the deceased, thus creating the relationship between the living and the dead.
Poe takes a quite different approach in expressing the same theme, the loss of a loved one, in Annabel Lee. While the tone is dark and somber in The Raven, the tone in Annabel Lee is loving at first, then as it
Edgar Allen Poe (Poe) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Emerson) are both famed romantic writers and poets from early to mid-nineteenth century. Their works are still some of the most studied and referenced in the present day. Both authors are famed for their writing and ideas, but their fame gained success each in their unique way. The two men had starkly different writing styles, and their views on philosophy were just as different. Both differences are evident when reading the two authors works. Emerson has an approach that based its roots in nature. He observes people and nature coinciding as one and brings out the beauty not just of nature but of life that others may not observe as part of their everyday life. Emerson has a passion for using his writing to better peoples’ outlook and opinion on life through his philosophical ideas. Poes approach to romantic writing is self-centered, and the way he portrays romanticism is in some cases dark. Rather than help the reader and their feelings; Poe writes about his experiences and his feelings through different avenues of writing. Both authors have a common theme in their writing. They both show an importance of self-awareness.
An exceptional poem can move the reader to a new consciousness. It becomes more than words pieced together to make a rhyme, and evokes true emotion that is palpable. One of the most influential authors that contributed to this experience was Edgar Allan Poe. His work is almost immediately recognizable due to his common motif that is both melancholy and mysterious. Much of his writing concerns love and loss, such as in his poem “Annabel Lee.” The essence of this work is endless love and the death of a beautiful young girl. It is thought by many that most of his literature mirrors his actual life, which was riddled with heartbreak and sorrow. It is evident from the mood and setting of his writing that he dealt with a lot of
Another poem that shows the unfortunate heart break that Poe may have experienced, is Annabel Lee. Initially, the first stanza is jolly and almost makes the writer envious of the love the two characters’ share. It shows their love for each other and how everything in their relationship was idealistic. It reads, “And this maiden she lived with no other thought than to love and be loved by me. She was a child and
In the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe again expresses his thoughts of loving and losing his love, Annabel, through his writing. Though not confirmed as being a poem about his wife, Virginia is the only woman in his life who fits all the criteria that the poem describes. This includes loving someone as they were both children and dying while they were in love. During the first three stanzas of this poem, Poe expresses the story of the life of himself and Annabel, including their intense love for one another. The second three stanzas of the poem, Poe shares how he has coped and his feelings after she has passed.
Who is “Annabel Lee”? Even though the poem is all about her, we never get a true introduction. Other than she was beautiful and youthful, we have no idea what she looks like. She is so beautiful, in fact, that angels want to destroy her. Poe uses the technique of imagery to let the reader visualize what their version of the perfect woman is. “Annabel” is a symbol of fantasy. Poe uses vivid imagery to define her without actually giving her a face. The protagonist imagines his love everywhere and every time he closes his eyes he sees her face and the image of her “bright eyes”. It is with this sensual imagery that the reader understands how deep his love is. So deep that even when the angels kill her, he can’t bear to be separated from her. Poe proves that the narrator isn’t going to let a little thing like death keep them apart.