Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven
The following are the first three stanzas of a very favorite poem of mine. I’ve been flipping through my Complete Tales and Poems by E.A. Poe and remembered how much I enjoy it. As with most poetry, it’s best experienced when read aloud on a dark, thunderstormy night in front of a dying fire in a gothic mansion.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore–
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door—
“ ‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;–vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow–sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me—filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating:
“ ‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door—
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more.”
The rest is available here.
May 21st, 2006 at 1:32 pm
One of my favorite poems, one of about ten give or take ten more or less. Other poems include The Red Wheelbarrow by WCW. In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound and too many other poems to name.
May 21st, 2006 at 9:20 pm
Hey Grizzle!! Thanks for the comment!! I just finished doing a little reading on WCW (William Carlos Williams for the uninitiated) in a book by Robert Coles. Coles is writing on stories/poetry as moral direction (I’m reading Coles for a paper on narrative theology and psychology), and Coles describes time spent with WCW as Williams did his rounds (I didn’t know he was a physician!) in a poor urban area. I haven’t read any of Williams stuff since high school, but he’s on my list. I’ll look up that poem of his and the one by Pound as well. We need to have you compile a list of readings and one Thursday night you can conduct a reading–some of your own stuff and some of your favorites. Know anybody with a bust of Pallas we could use?
May 21st, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Hey everybody, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Red_Wheelbarrow
May 22nd, 2006 at 7:35 am
I used to love Poe, I started reading him at a young age… I should still have the book somewhere, just exactly where is a mystery!
May 23rd, 2006 at 6:27 am
I used to love the Raven…. reading it. Then I memorized it for extra credit and burned out on it in 10th grade. Poetry is something I have ignored for quite a while, but maybe I should get back into it. Are there any modern Poe’s out there?
If my last name is Williams, then William is not even on the list of possible names for my child.
May 23rd, 2006 at 8:12 am
I once overheard a cousin-in-law say that this form of double naming is common among the Welsh. He confessed himself glad not to be named ‘Allen Allen.’