The trouble with experts …

… R.T.'s Commonplace: Yesterday's passions: Poe's "atrociously written" stories.

The eminent Professor Bloom notwithstanding, "To Helen" happens to be a well-nigh perfect lyric. Poetry was much more mainstream when Poe was writing, as much entertainment as "deep thinking." "The Raven" is entertaining — and, I am told, a masterpiece in Baudelaire's French translation.  The good professor should try having some literary fun once in a while. Not everything we read needs to be a revelation of transcendence.