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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
This explanation reminds me very much of Dante's much disputed "Letter to Cangrande dells Scala," a missive with a dedication to the warlord of the Paradiso followed by a definition and explanation of the whole of the Commedia. There are three theories regarding this letter attributed to Dante: he wrote it, someone else wrote it but attributed it to Dante for authority, or that he wrote the dedication and some scholar later added the explanation. Be that as it may, there is a theory out there that Poe didn't write "The Raven," but that he rather accepted it as his own after it was published under an obvious pseudonym by Mathew Franklin Whittier. (The author of this theory has written a scholarly paper about it, but by also claiming to be himself the reincarnation of Whittier, and that Whittier also penned "A Christmas Carol," I'm not sure how to take him. The proofs cited in his article, which I merely scanned, seemed far from as conclusive as he claims.)
Indeed "The Raven" is rather unique in Poe's poetic oeuvre. He never wrote a poem to rival it, nothing as ambitious nor as metrically sophisticated. Thus, this essay over-explaining how he came to construct it, is either an elaborate ruse to solidify his usurped authorship of the poem he stole, or a mere cash-in on the poem's notoriety (given that it made his name but he was paid next to nothing for it, even if he is the poem's true author). Either of these could be the case as I daresay the imaginative and compositional habits of writers are simply not nearly as logical and methodical as Poe here pretends. Oh, sure, in retrospect it's easy to think up justifications for metrical choices and thematic constructions, but I daresay most great writers rather feel their way to these things through the penning of the words themselves, which tend to lead us on, rather than making a series of compositional choices that lead them directly to one of the greatest poems ever written. Yet this, interestingly, is what this essay claims Poe did and it, too, appears wholly logical.
Also Poe here takes his usual pot-shot at the Transcendentalists whom he despised. He was simultaneously a genius and a petty man, but was he also a thief of poetry? While I can't say for sure, somehow I feel he wrote "The Raven." Perhaps that, however, is mere force of habit: it's hard to think of Poe at all without "The Raven" as a huge part of his identity. If he didn't write it, what a terrible burden it is upon his imaginary soul.
Indeed "The Raven" is rather unique in Poe's poetic oeuvre. He never wrote a poem to rival it, nothing as ambitious nor as metrically sophisticated. Thus, this essay over-explaining how he came to construct it, is either an elaborate ruse to solidify his usurped authorship of the poem he stole, or a mere cash-in on the poem's notoriety (given that it made his name but he was paid next to nothing for it, even if he is the poem's true author). Either of these could be the case as I daresay the imaginative and compositional habits of writers are simply not nearly as logical and methodical as Poe here pretends. Oh, sure, in retrospect it's easy to think up justifications for metrical choices and thematic constructions, but I daresay most great writers rather feel their way to these things through the penning of the words themselves, which tend to lead us on, rather than making a series of compositional choices that lead them directly to one of the greatest poems ever written. Yet this, interestingly, is what this essay claims Poe did and it, too, appears wholly logical.
Also Poe here takes his usual pot-shot at the Transcendentalists whom he despised. He was simultaneously a genius and a petty man, but was he also a thief of poetry? While I can't say for sure, somehow I feel he wrote "The Raven." Perhaps that, however, is mere force of habit: it's hard to think of Poe at all without "The Raven" as a huge part of his identity. If he didn't write it, what a terrible burden it is upon his imaginary soul.
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This is one of my favorite pieces on the craft of writing. Poe is one of the literary greats.
of course Baudelaire wrote a translation of this text... Poe's number 1 fanboy confirmed
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