Quoth The Raven - Poe Poetry Blog

A good dozen or so poems by Edgar Allan Poe feature fictional or semi-fictionalized women characters enshrined forever in often heartfelt verse. Today, we will classify ten of them, whom I place in three distinct classes: Most of them are femmes tragiques , the members of Poe’s “dead lovers” club and they include Annabel Lee, Lenore, Ulalume and Irene. An equal number are straight-up muses, women whom he celebrates in romantic odes: Helen, Ligeia, Isadore, and Eulalie. Finally, there is a smaller category, which I call the angels, the helpers, who soothe and succor: they are the down-to-earth Annie and the more ethereal Psyche. One is tempted to generalize and an argument could be made that these characters stand in a spectrum for Poe’s ideal of femininity, but that would probably be an over-simplification because these characters represent different real women, and different thoughts about women; though there may well be some bleed-through. Eulalie, from the prefix “ eu- ”

We conclude our classification of all of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems with the “Class I” poems, the top 25, which includes Poe’s best known and loved poems.   The goal, as explained in the prior posts, is to classify the 70 known poems of Edgar Allan Poe: first into three rough “classes”—call them bronze, silver and gold—to distinguish minor poems, above-average poems, and world-class poems; second, to rank every single poem in order, from least to best—though this poem-by-poem ranking is more subjective.  [BRONZE] [SILVER] 25. “To ——” Poe was 19 years-old when he penned this nearly perfect poem (“ I heed not that my earthly lot ”), which laments his own station in life, and encapsulates the fatalism and self-pity that characterizes Poe’s worldview. In its simplicity, the poem recalls the elegance of a Petrarchan sonnet, managing to imbue the tragic verse with a sweet tinge. 24. “Silence” Includes transcendental observations like, “ There is a two-fold Silence — sea and shore

We continue our classification of all of Edgar Allan Poe’s poems with the “Class II” poems, the middle 20, which constitute above average-near great poems.   The goal, as explained in the prior post, is to classify the 70 known poems of Edgar Allan Poe: first into three rough “classes”—call them bronze, silver and gold—to distinguish minor poems, above-average poems, and world-class poems; second, to rank every single poem in order, from least to best—though this poem-by-poem ranking is more subjective.  [BRONZE] [GOLD] 45. Tie : “Latin Hymn” and  “Hymn to Aristogeiton and Harmodius” These pieces represents a retro Graeco-Roman tribute. Poe seems to have admired the ancient classical civilizations, writing “To Helen,” “The Coliseum,” “Scenes from ‘Politian’,” and other classically-infused works. 44. The “Deep in Earth” Couplet The most poignant and powerful fragmentary poem, I posit that Poe began to write this but simply could not bear to continue, as it may have been h