Edgar Allen Poe -- Shall Be Lifted Nevermore

There has always been a particularly soft space in my heart for Poe. My mom still quotes Annabell Lee sporadically from when she memorized it as a child, and its opposingly optimistic and haunting lines are some of my first memories of poetry. My perception of The Raven will be forever tainted by the memory of Robert Davison's croaking of "Nevermore" in eighth grade, and The Fall of the House of Usher has made me almost ridiculously suspicious of any minor crack in the plaster walls of our farmhouse.

Questions of the author's mental stability aside, Poe remains an emblematic figure in the American literary canon. If anything, his alcoholism and severe bouts with depression and misfortune make his body of work all the more stunning--he was, if anything, writing out of adversity. It makes me a little bit sad that his personal choices so often taint our understanding of his work as the works of a fellow perhaps a little more than mad, but it is rather these tones madness and downright insanity that make the vast majority of his writing so interesting, so I suppose I can't complain too much.

Carnivalin'

Since I'm a few days late posting this post and therefore feel as though my classmates have more than adequately covered the classes general feelings as far as The Scarlet Letter is concerned, I thought I'd look back a little further into the past month and tackle rather our readings of Emerson and Thoreau, in order not to be ridiculously redundant.

In general we as a class seemed to be more or less uncomfortable with both the content and presentation of Emerson's American Scholar and Nature, both relatively philosophical in nature. Despite a general dislike and frustration, many of my classmates managed to find bits and pieces of good sense. Emerson's deep appreciation of nature and his concept of its role in our understanding of ourselves. Many also struggled with Emerson's concept of the spiritual -- Kiera mentions in particular the tones of Eastern religions that pervade his writings, which are particularly interesting in relation to his prior role as a protestant minister.

We seemed to appreciate Thoreau's presentation of Emerson's philosophy a great deal more, as a group, in particular his initiative in immersing himself in nature. His elegant language was also appealing to the group in general. A few of our classmates, however, found him to fall a little short of his ultimate goal of separating himself from the necessities of society and secluding himself in nature, Walden being, instead of an exposition of an idealistic existence becomes more of an artistic representation of a less-than-idealistic reality.

Overall more people seemed to feel comfortable tackling the concepts in Thoreau as opposed to those in Emerson, due to the relative simplicity of Walden in comparison with Emerson's more philosophical ramblings. Thoreau is approachable and therefore more practical, despite his downfalls.