American Romanticism

Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe
(1809-1849)
 E.A. Poe
• One of the most popular US writers
• Poète maudit and cult figure
• Life haunted by poverty and death
• Variety of approaches: bohemian, drunkard
vs. disciplined,hardworking writer
• Man of reason and man of passion:
-Analyst and analysand
-Neoclassical and romantic influences
 E.A. Poe
• Art for art’s sake
• Great impact on the history of :
-literary theory
-short story writing
-the Gothic
-psychoanalysis
-science-fiction
• Creator of detective fiction
“The Balloon Hoax”
(1844)
 E.A. Poe

• Deep influence on later

writers (French
Symbolists, Nabokov,
Borges, Lovecraft,
Stephen King, Paul
Auster, J.C. Oates…)
• On contemporary
culture: music (classical
and pop), films, comics,
tv, merchandising.
Poe and music
Poe and music
Poe and music
 Poe and music It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogc1
80_dWHM That a maiden there lived whom
you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —
And this maiden she lived with no
other thought
Than to love and be loved by me

Hace muchos muchos años en un

reino junto al mar
Habitó una señorita cuyo nombre
era Annabel Lee
Y crecía aquella flor sin pensar en
nada más
Que en amar y ser amada, ser
amada por mi
Poe and music
Poe and music
 Eldorado
Poe and films Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old—

This knight so bold—
And o’er his heart a shadow—
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength

Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow—
‘Shadow,’ said he,
‘Where can it be—
This land of Eldorado?’

‘Over the Mountains

Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,’
The shade replied,—
‘If you seek for Eldorado!’
Roger Corman films
 Poe and TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiXjaPqSyY
Poe and painting
• Manet’s
illustrations
(1875)
for a French
translation by
Mallarmé of Poe’s
“The Raven”
Poe and painting
 Poe and painting

• Gauguin’s “Nevermore”, 1897. Oil on canvas.

At the time the painting was executed, Pahura (the woman in the
picture) was grieving the loss of her first child (by Gauguin) and
Gauguin the loss of his favourite European-born daughter Aline.
The artist himself claimed the bird represented a "bird of the
devil who watches".
 Life and career
• Born in Boston of itinerant actors (1809)
• Poe’s mother dies (1811)
• Adopted by John Allan, wealthy merchant (Richmond,
Virginia)
• “The want of parental affection has been the heaviest
of my trials”
• Student in Great Britain (1815-1820)
• University of Virginia (1826)
• Joins the US Army (1827)
• First publication: Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827)
• Military academy of West Point (1830)
Life and career
• He marries his thirteen-
year-old cousin Virginia
(1835)
• Works as a reviewer,
editor and literary writer
in Philadelphia,
Baltimore, Richmond
and New York
Life and career
• The Narrative of
Arthur Gordon Pym
(1838)

• Tales of the
Grotesque and
Arabesque (1840)
Life and career
• “The Raven” (1845): his
most popular work

• “The Philosophy of
Composition” (1846)

• Death of Virginia (1847)

• Poe dies in Baltimore in

strange circumstances
(1849)
Poetry
• "Al Aaraaf”
• “Alone”
• "Annabel Lee"
• "The Bells"
• "The City in the Sea"
• "Eldorado"
• "To Helen"
• "The Raven"
• "Ulalume"
 Annabel Lee (1849)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCG1CpfejW4

It was many and many a year ago,

In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee; —
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

She was a child and I was a child,

In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love —
I and my Annabel Lee —
With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
 Annabel Lee
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud by night
Chilling my Annabel Lee;
So that her high-born kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up, in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me;
Yes! that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud, chilling
And killing my Annabel Lee.
 Annabel Lee

But our love it was stronger by far than the love

Of those who were older than we —
Of many far wiser than we —
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.
Poe’s detective fiction
(Tales of ratiocination)
• “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue” (1841)

• “The Mystery of
Marie Roget” (1842)

• “The Purloined
Letter” (1844)
Essays
• “The Philosophy of
Composition” (1846)

• “The Rationale of
Verse” (1848)

• “The Poetic
Principle” (1850)
 Essays
Eureka (1848)
“An Essay on the Material
and Spiritual Universe”
• Intuitive approach to the
nature of the Universe
• “The plots of God are
perfect”
• “The universe is a plot
of God”
• Anticipates the notion of
the Big Bang.
 Recommended
biographies
• Kenneth Silverman. 1992.
Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and
Never-ending Remembrance.
London: Weindenfel

• Peter Ackroyd. 2008. Poe: A

Life Cut Short. London: Chatto
& Windus.