The Fall Of The House of Usher 1

 Poe and Poetry

Poems in French and English are different in a few ways. English poems don't always rhyme. They can, though. But they have a rhythm to them :

for the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

u     u       /      u   u      /       u     u     /       u     u      /

 

Some syllables are stressed / , and others are unstressed u. You have to pronounce stressed syllables louder, and this gives an English poem its musicality, along with alliterations.

C. Baudelaire was an admirer of E.A. Poe, and even translated him into French. They both belong to Romanticism, an artistic movement that started in the late 18th century in Great Britain and Germany.

Poe's USA were very different from today's USA. In the 1840s, the fertility rate was 6.9 (around 1.9 today), the infant mortality rate 300/1000 (5/1000 today) and life expectancy 35 years (around 80 today). Poe lived in the antebellum South, the South during slavery, before the Civil War.

Annabel Lee, Romanticism and Pathetic Fallacy

Is it something that was written for Poe's love ?

Stanza 1 :

The Narrator talks about a love story which took place many years ago.

Stanza 2 :

this explains the unconditional love of the two lovers. 

Stanza 3 :

Annabel Lee dies ; the narrator is still in love. Annabel Lee is buried (enterrée).

Stanza 4 :

the angels were jealous of their love, and sent the cloud that killed her.

Stanza 5 :

A love stronger than angels and demons, special love. Their souls can't be dissevered.

Stanza 6 :

He pays homage to her ; he feels her eyes ; he lies next to her.

Winged Seraphs

Seraphin / seraphim

Today we started our work on Edgar Allan Poe. We talked about the poem entitled Annabel Lee. Here are some points we evoked:
- it seemed like a story that tells the lives of two characters who feel a strong love (the poet / narrator and Annabel Lee)
- it's a melancholy poem, yet it's a beautiful proof of love, and he writes positive things about his love.
- It sounds like a song, there's rhythm to it.
- The first stanza is perfect, then the poem becomes dramatic and the stanzas change.
- It's Romantic and Ideal.

So here are a few of the themes from the poem:
- love vs death / fear
- truth / forgetfulness 
- sea (=emotions of the poet) / kingdom (everyday life)

We also took a look at a painting called The Wanderer Above The Sea Of Clouds by Austrian painter Caspar David Friedrich. It illustrates the connection between Nature and the feelings of the artist, his inner life (sa vie intérieure). 



stanza (strophe)
line (vers)

It was many and many a year ago, A

   In a kingdom by the sea, B

That a maiden there lived whom you may know A

   By the name of Annabel Lee; B

And this maiden she lived with no other thought C

   Than to love and be loved by me. B

It was many and many a year ago

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

an anapest is 2 unstressed syllables and 1 stressed syllable.
a iamb is 1 unstressed syllable and 1stressed syllable.

HOMEWORK:
Nov. 15th : read pages 90 to 93, to "During the whole of a dull, dark..." to "...into the presence of his master."

next time: quotes by ruskin and Friedrich and Wordsworth
more romantic poems? more prosody? a bit, just a bit. Keats
dying young
life in USA back then
life of Poe