Monday, October 05, 2009

Worse than death ...

... Poe’s Fading Star. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Poe wrote one perfect poem, "To Helen". Even if only once in a lifetime, that's a major achievement. I think we encounter Poe when we are young - when the fustian prose doesn't matter - and take so much from him then that there is really nothing left should we come back later on.

5 comments:

  1. The literary critic Harold Bloom once said (and I paraphrase here based on memory) that Poe is one of those inferior American writers whose work is always improved by translation into another language. Obviously, Bloom does not think much of Poe. For the most part, I agree with Bloom, but there is something to be said on behalf of Poe in terms of his popularity and durability. Few writers of the 19th century can match the besotted genius when it comes to an accumulation of dedicated readers in contemporary America.

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  2. POSTSCRIPT: I now note that the article to which you linked contained the Bloom comment. I should have paid closer attention before commenting myself.

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  3. David Lehman points out that ". . . Poe has wielded a tremendous influence on everything from detective fiction and tales of terror to French symbolist poetry" and that "[f]or every derogation of Poe, you can find an unlikely champion, and I would recommend the poets Richard Wilbur and Daniel Hoffman as excellent guides to the terrain."

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  4. Susan B.8:19 PM

    Oh, I don't know -- I reread all of Poe about five years ago to write a section on him in a literature textbook. I thought many of his stories quite wonderful, and "The Fall of the House of Usher" is really a masterpiece of mood and setting. Can't say I think much of him as a poet, though.

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  5. I was so amazed at "Poe's Fading Star," I wound up writing a whole post concerning Barra's column on my own humble little blog. I was particularly struck by the fact that Barra clearly knew very little about Poe (I'd be shocked to learn he had actually read anything of his,) and cared less. So, going by that, Barra assumes everyone shares his feelings. 'Taint so.

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