Priest

Edgar Allan Poe


Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 in Boston, where his mother had been employed as an actress. Elizabeth Arnold Poe died in Richmond on December 8, 1811, and Edgar was taken into the family of John Allan, a member of the firm of Ellis and Allan, tobacco-merchants. After attending schools in England and Richmond, young Poe registered at the University of Virginia on February 14, 1826, the second session of the University. He lived in Room 13, West Range. He became an active member of the Jefferson Literary Society, and passed his courses with good grades at the end of the session in December. Mr. Allan failed to give him enough money for necessary expenses, and Poe made debts of which his so-called father did not approve. When Mr. Allan refused to let him return to the University, a quarrel ensued, and Poe was driven from the Allan home without money. Mr. Allan probably sent him a little money later, and Poe went to Boston. There he published a little volume of poetry, Tamerlane and Other Poems. It is such a rare book now that a single copy has sold for $200,000.00 In Boston on May 26, 1827, Poe enlisted in The United States Army as a private using the name Edgar A. Perry. After two years of service, during which he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant-major, he secured, with Mr. Allan's aid, a discharge from the Army and went to Baltimore. He lived there with his aunt, Mrs. Maria Poe Clemm, on the small amounts of money sent by Mr. Allan until he received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Meanwhile, Poe published a second book of poetry in 1829: Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems. After another quarrel with Allan (who had married a second wife in 1830), Poe no longer received aid from his foster father. Poe then took the only method of release from the Academy, and got himself dismissed on March 6, 1831. Soon after Poe left West Point, a third volume appeared: Poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Second Edition. While living in Baltimore with his aunt, Mrs. Clemm, young Poe began writing prose tales. Five of these appeared in the Philadelphia Saturday Courier in 1832. With the December issue of 1835, Poe began editing the Southern Literary Messenger for Thomas W. White in Richmond; he held this position until January, 1837. During this time, Poe married his young cousin, Virginia Clemm in Richmond on May 16, 1836. Poe's slashing reviews and sensational tales made him widely known as an author; however, he failed to find a publisher for a volume of burlesque tales, Tales of the Folio Club. Harpers did, however, print his book-length narrative, Arthur Gordon Pym in July of 1838. Little is known about Poe's life after he left the Messenger; however, in 1838 he went to Philadelphia where he lived for six years. He was an editor of Burton's Gentleman's Magazine from July, 1839 to June, 1840, and of Graham's Magazine from April, 1841 to May, 1842. In April, 1844, with barely car fare for his family of three, [including his aunt, Virginia's mother, who lived with them], Poe went to New York where he found work on the New York Evening Mirror. In 1840, Poe's Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque was published in two volumes in Philadelphia. In 1845, Poe became famous with the spectacular success of his poem "The Raven," and in March of that year, he joined C. F. Briggs in an effort to publish The Broadway Journal. Also in 1845,Wiley and Putnam issued Tales by Edgar A. Poe and The Raven and Other Poems. The year 1846 was a tragic one. Poe rented the little cottage at Fordham, where he lived the last three years of his life. The Broadway Journal failed, and Virginia became very ill and died on January 30, 1847. After his wife's death, Poe perhaps yielded more often to a weakness for drink, which had beset him at intervals since early manhood. He was unable to take even a little alcohol without a change of personality, and any excess was accompanied by physical prostration. Throughout his life those illnesses had interferred with his success as an editor, and had given him a reputation for intemperateness that he scarcely deserved. In his latter years, Poe was interested in several women. They included the poetess, Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, Mrs. Charles Richmond, and the widow, Mrs. Sarah Elmira Shelton, whom he had known in his boyhood as Miss Royster. The circumstances of Poe's death remain a mystery. After a visit to Norfolk and Richmond for lectures, he was found in Baltimore in a pitiable condition and taken unconscious to a hospital where he died on Sunday, October 7, 1849. He was buried in the yard of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland. www.PoeMuseum.org

Annabel Lee  It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of ANNABEL LEE; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea; But we loved with a love that was more than love- I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, Went envying her and me- Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we- Of many far wiser than we- And neither the angels in heaven above, Nor the demons down under the sea, Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea

Edgar Allan Poe’s poem "Annabel Le//e//" is a poem that is full of loss, both physical and emotional. There is the physical loss of Annabel Lee, first with the involuntary separation caused by “her highborn kinsman” and then with her death. The physical death of Annabel Lee causes more emotional and psychological death for the narrator. In line “Of my darling – my darling, my life and my bride.” Annabel Lee is more than his love; she is his life. The repetition of “Annabel Lee” throughout the poem emphasizes the importance she has to the speaker. It is not clear whom this poem is about, although there are some autobiographical components in the poem. Perhaps, Annabel Lee is Poe’s wife Virginia. The two were married in Baltimore, which is not technically on the coast but is located on a large body, which means it could be the “kingdom by the sea” where the speaker and Annabel Lee fell in love. Annabel Lee’s and Virginia’s death also is similar. Annabel Lee is killed when a “wind came out of the cloud by night” and Virginia died from tuberculosis, which is a respiratory illness. It seems that with the death of Annabel Lee, the speaker’s became frozen in time. The loss made him focus on only one thing, Annabel Lee. In the first stanza, Annabel Lee “lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me” However, following her death, these lines could be used when referring to the speaker and his feelings for Annabel Lee. The speaker is completely consumed by his love and even in death their love is still vey much alive. For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

“Annabel Lee” is one of my favorite poems. Every time I read it I am overwhelmed with sadness but also happiness. While it is about great loss, it is also about great love. It really makes me think about the saying “It is better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.”





Edna St. Vincent Millay


"Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine, on February 22, 1892. Her mother, Cora, raised her three daughters on her own after asking her husband to leave the family home in 1899. Cora encouraged her girls to be ambitious and self-sufficient, teaching them an appreciation of music and literature from an early age. In 1912, at her mother's urging, Millay entered her poem "Renascence" into a contest: she won fourth place and publication in //The Lyric Year // , bringing her immediate acclaim and a scholarship to Vassar. There, she continued to write poetry and became involved in the theater. She also developed intimate relationships with several women while in school, including the English actress Wynne Matthison. In 1917, the year of her graduation, Millay published her first book, //Renascence and Other Poems // . At the request of Vassar's drama department, she also wrote her first verse play, //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Lamp and the Bell // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> (1921), a work about love between women. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Millay, whose friends called her "Vincent," then moved to New York's Greenwich Village, where she led a notoriously Bohemian life. She lived in a nine-foot-wide attic and wrote anything she could find an editor willing to accept. She and the other writers of Greenwich Village were, according to Millay herself, "very, very poor and very, very merry." She joined the Provincetown Players in their early days, and befriended writers such as Witter Bynner, Edmund Wilson, Susan Glaspell, and Floyd Dell, who asked for Millay's hand in marriage. Millay, who was openly bisexual, refused, despite Dell's attempts to persuade her otherwise. That same year Millay published //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> A Few Figs from Thistles // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (1920), a volume of poetry which drew much attention for its controversial descriptions of female sexuality and feminism. In 1923 her fourth volume of poems, //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Harp Weaver // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. In addition to publishing three plays in verse, Millay also wrote the libretto of one of the few American grand operas, //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The King's Henchman // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (1927). Millay married Eugen Boissevain, a self-proclaimed feminist and widower of Inez Milholland, in 1923. Boissevain gave up his own pursuits to manage Millay's literary career, setting up the readings and public appearances for which Millay grew quite famous. According to Millay's own accounts, the couple acted liked two bachelors, remaining "sexually open" throughout their twenty-six-year marriage, which ended with Boissevain's death in 1949. Edna St. Vincent Millay died in 1950." (Biography from www.poets.org)

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;">I think I should have loved you presently, And given in earnest words I flung in jest; And lifted honest eyes for you to see, And caught your hand against my cheek and breast; And all my pretty follies flung aside That won you to me, and beneath your gaze, Naked of reticence and shorn of pride, Spread like a chart my little wicked ways. I, that had been to you, had you remained, But one more waking from a recurrent dream, Cherish no less the certain stakes I gained, And walk your memory's halls, austere, supreme, A ghost in marble of a girl you knew Who would have loved you in a day or two.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: left;">“I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently” is about a young girl who has lost the man she loved before she even knew she loved him. The narrator says, “One more waking from a recurrent dream,” which means that perhaps, this is not the first time she has lost a lover because of her “pretty follies” and “wicked ways.” While this poem is of loss and regret, it is not particularly sad. This poem seems to have a very distinct nonchalant attitude. It has the voice of a flapper. The narrator seems to recognize the things that she did wrong but also very aware that those things cannot be changes. In the beginning she knows that she was young and immature in the relationship but in last two lines, which are perhaps the saddest lines in the poem, she matures into a young woman. “A ghost in marble of a girl you knew who would have loved you in a day or two.” This line also contains two symbols that deal with the feelings and emotions of the girl. The ghost could mean that the girl that failed to love him is now gone, like much like her lover is. Or it could symbolize her transformation that she is now going to take things seriously and be honest about her feelings unlike before. The marble could symbolize her new view toward love. This loss of love has made her cynical and disillusioned with the idea of love. This poem is written is such beautiful, but simple language. It is extremely easy to relate to this poem and its meaning. I believe one’s own experience with love and loss change what one would get out of this poem. For me this poem speaks directly to my experiences with love. Often I avoid the possibility of getting hurt by not taking things seriously and only once it is over, do I see how much I really cared.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Apostrophe to Man <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">(On reflecting that the world is ready to go to war again) <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Detestable race, continue to expunge yourself, die out. Breed faster, crowd, encroach, sing hymns, build bombing airplanes; Make speeches, unveil statues, issue bonds, parade; Convert again into explosives the bewildered ammonia and the distracted cellulose; Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies The hopeful bodies of the young; exhort, Pray, pull long faces, be earnest, be all but overcome, be photographed; Confer, perfect your formulae, commercialize Bacteria harmful to human issues, Put death on the market; Breed, crowd, encroach, expand, expunge yourself, dies out, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Homo called <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">sapiens<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-style: normal;">. <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-align: left;">“Apostrophe to Man” is about the vile and horrible nature of war. In particular, it is about the road to war and what is to be expected once the fighting has begun. Edna St. Vincent Millay had seen the destruction of war during the First World War, and following Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party taking control of Germany, she wrote “Apostrophe to Man” in 1934. Edna St Vincent Millay used this poem to make her view of war as clear as possible. The language used in this poem is graphic and very emotional. She refers to human beings as the “detestable race.” The last line, “//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Homo called sapiens” implies that war is inhuman and something that is below mankind; perhaps man is no more than any other animal in nature. There are several poetic devices used in this poem such as imagery and personification. Millay implements imagery, both visual and olfactory, in this poem as well. For example,“Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies The hopeful bodies of the young;” not only creates a visual image of death but the word "putrescent" creates an olfactory image of death. Personification in this poem may be alluding to war’s ability to take on a life of it’s own. Millay writes of “the bewildered ammonia and the distracted cellulose”, but perhaps these are words that describe her feelings, rather than ammonia and cellulose. Most of all, this poem has a very distinct tone to it. The structure and punctuation gives this poem a very specific tone. When reading “Apostrophe to Man”, one can almost feel the anger and disgust Millay felt toward war. When I read this poem, I feel a mixture of sadness and anger. While war is awful, it is also one of the few constants in the history of man. This poem also makes me wonder why we, as a species, seem to keep fighting in wars, when we know how terrible and destructive war is and can be. This poem seems to be just as meaningful and relevant now as it was in 1934. //

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">I Forgot for a Moment <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">July 1940

I forgot for a moment France; I forgot England; I forgot my care: I lived for a moment in a world where I was free to be With the things and people that I love, and I was happy there. I forgot for a moment Holland, I forgot my heavy care.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">I lived for a moment in a world so lovely, so inept At twisted words and crooked deeds, it was as if I slept and dreamed.

It seemed that all was well with Holland- not a tank had crushed The tulips there. Mile after mile the level lowlands blossomed – yellow square, white square, Scarlet strip and mauve strop bright beneath the brightly clouded sky, the rounds clouds and the gentle air. Along the straight canals between striped fields of tulips in the morning sailed Broad ships, their hulls by tulip-beds concealed, on the sails showing

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">It seemed that all was well with England – the harsh foreign voice hysterically vowing, Once more, to keep its word, at length was disbelieved, and hushed.

I seemed that all was well with France, with her straight roads Lined with slender poplars, and the peasants on the skyline ploughing.



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif;">“I Forgot for a Moment” is also about war, but focuses on escaping the awfulness, even if for a moment. It was written in 1940, shortly after World War Two had begun. This poem is very different in both language and emotion than “Apostrophe to Man”, even though both poems deal with the topic of war. “Apostrophe to Man” was written before the war, as a warning to avoid war at all cost because it is so awful and vile. However, “I Forgot for a Moment” was written during the early stages of the war, and is an attempt to offer an escape from death and destruction. The poem is describing a world that does not exist, except for in one’s own mind. By 1940, war had already brought death and destruction to Holland, England, and France. For the narrator, the only way to escape the war, which is referred to as “my heavy care”, she must think of how things could be and hopefully will be once again. Millay’s use of imagery is very different than her use in “Apostrophe to Man.” The imagery is used to create “a world so lovely, so inept at twisted words and crooked deeds.” One can see the tulips blossoming in strips of yellow, white, scarlet, and mauve as well as the ships sailing through the canals of Holland. This poem focuses on once was in Europe, and what was lost when the war broke out. It is a call to remember and envision a world where there is no more war. When I read this poem, I can almost imagine walking through the fields of tulips and down the streets lined with poplar trees. It also reminds me that some of the most important things are the simplest things, like flowers and silence. What I find so interesting about this poem is how much Millay’s voice differs from “Apostrophe to Man” and this poem. It is almost like two different individuals wrote the two poems.

Anne Sexton


<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">Anne Gray Harvey was born in Newton, Massachusetts, in 1928. She attended Garland Junior College for one year and married Alfred Muller Sexton II at age nineteen. She enrolled in a modeling course at the Hart Agency and lived in San Francisco and Baltimore. In 1953 she gave birth to a daughter. In 1954 she was diagnosed with postpartum depression, suffered her first mental breakdown, and was admitted to Westwood Lodge, a neuropsychiatric hospital she would repeatedly return to for help. In 1955, following the birth of her second daughter, Sexton suffered another breakdown and was hospitalized again; her children were sent to live with her husband's parents. That same year, on her birthday, she attempted suicide. She was encouraged by her doctor to pursue an interest in writing poetry she had developed in high school, and in the fall of 1957 she enrolled in a poetry workshop at the Boston Center for Adult Education. In her introduction to Anne Sexton's //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Complete Poems // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">, the poet <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Maxine Kumin] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">, who was enrolled with Sexton in the 1957 workshop and became her close friend, describes her belief that it was the writing of poetry that gave Sexton something to work towards and develop and thus enabled her to endure life for as long as she did. In 1974 at the age of 46, despite a successful writing career--she won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for //<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Live or Die // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;">--she lost her battle with mental illness and committed suicide. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Like <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-decoration: none;">[|Robert Lowell] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-decoration: none;">[|Sylvia Plath] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; text-decoration: none;">[|W. D. Snodgrass] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 10pt;"> (who exerted a great influence on her work), and other "confessional" poets, Sexton offers the reader an intimate view of the emotional anguish that characterized her life. She made the experience of being a woman a central issue in her poetry, and though she endured criticism for bringing subjects such as menstruation, abortion, and drug addiction into her work, her skill as a poet transcended the controversy over her subject matter. (biography from www.poets.org)



<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">The Starry Night <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">That does not keep me from having a terrible need of—shall I say the word—religion. Then I go out at night to paint the stars. Vincent Van Gogh in a letter to his brother The town does not exist except where one black-haired tree slips up like a drowned woman into the hot sky. The town is silent. The night boils with eleven stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die.

It moves. They are all alive. Even the moon bulges in its orange irons to push children, like a god, from its eye. The old unseen serpent swallows up the stars. Oh starry starry night! This is how I want to die:

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; text-align: center;">into that rushing beast of the night, sucked up by that great dragon, to split from my life with no flag, no belly, no cry. <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">“The Starry Night” is about Vincent Van Gogh’s painting by the same name. The poem is a description of the painting, but in part it is Sexton’s response to the painting. Anne Sexton’s poetry is often described as “confession poetry”, and “The Starry Night” is no exception. However, this poem is interesting because it seems to be dealing with more than her own feelings of sadness and about death. It seems to deal with Vincent Van Gogh’s as well. Even if one had never seen Van Gogh’s painting, he or she would still be able to imagine I because Sexton’s descriptive language is so strong. Her use of poetic devices gives both the poem as well as Van Gogh’s painting a new dimension. The painting comes to live in her poem. The tree becomes more than a tree, it because “a drowned woman” slipping “into the hot sky.” The nighttime sky is a “great dragon” that moves and the swirls in the sky become an “old unseen serpent.” While everything is alive, the narrator wants to die. This is an interesting juxtaposition of life and death. When I read this poem, I immediately think the similarities between Anne Sexton and Vincent Van Gogh. Both dealt with depression and this is evident in their works. Both works are full of sadness and anger. After reading this poem, I feel very similar to how I felt after seeing Van Gogh’s painting, sad but also captivated. It is strange that something so beautiful can be full of so much sadness and despair. One strange thing that comes to mind when I read this poem is the orange moon. As a child, my mom would tell me when there was an orange moon, it meant that triplets were being born.