1 Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe USING

1 “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe USING A CRITICAL LENS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND A CLASSIC WORK

“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe Using A Critical Lens to Better Understand a Classic Work 2

3 OBJECTIVE: Our goal is to use the “lens” of biographical literary criticism in order to better understand a classic work of art.

4 QUICKWRITE—Respond to the following quote: “We see the world through lenses we have ground. ” -Unknown What does this quote mean? Be prepared to share your responses.

5 So what is literary Criticism? Literary criticism is nothing more than a technique for describing or

Literary criticism is not an abstract, intellectual exercise; it is a natural human response to literature. If a friend informs you she is reading a book you have just finished, it would be odd indeed if you did not begin swapping opinions. Literary criticism is nothing more than discourse—spoken or written —about literature. A student who sits quietly in a morning English class, intimidated by the notion of literary criticism, will spend an hour that evening talking animatedly about the meaning of song lyrics or comparing the relative merits of particular Supernatural episodes. It is inevitable that people will ponder, discuss, and analyze the works of art that interest them. 6

7 The informal criticism of friends talking about literature tends to be casual, unorganized, and subjective. Since Aristotle, however, philosophers, scholars, and writers have tried to create more precise and disciplined ways of discussing literature. Mass media critics, such as newspaper reviewers, usually spend their time evaluating works—telling us which books are worth reading, which plays not to bother seeing. But most serious literary criticism is not primarily evaluative; it assumes we know that Othello or “The Death of Ivan Ilych” are worth reading. Instead, it is analytical; it tries to help us better understand a literary work.

8 While there a number of different critical “lenses” or approaches to reading literature, our focus today is on Biographical Criticism.

9 “All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster’s autobiography. ” -Federico Fellini

10 “After reading Eminem's autobiography, which I did because I'm so interested in him as an artist, I respect him a lot. Even though he seems angry and mad, he's had to fight so many demons in his life. ” –Taryn Manning

11 “A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote. ” -Yevgeny Yevtushenko

12 Biographical Criticism Biographical criticism begins with the simple but central insight that literature is written by actual people and that understanding an author’s life can help readers more thoroughly comprehend the work.

13 Anyone who reads the biography of a writer quickly sees how much an author’s experience shapes—both directly and indirectly—what he or she creates. Reading that biography will also change (and usually deepen) our response to the work. Sometimes even knowing a single important fact illuminates our reading of a poem or story. Learning, for example, that Josephine Miles was confined to a wheelchair or that Weldon Kees committed suicide at forty-one will certainly make us pay attention to certain aspects of their poems we might otherwise have missed or considered unimportant.

14 So how does this critical theory look in practice? Consider Edgar Allan Poe’s classic poem “Annabel Lee” in light of his own personal history.

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16 First, however, what do you know about Poe? Take a moment and write down all the facts you know or think you know about the writer Edgar Allan Poe. Be prepared to share your responses.

17 We should begin by looking at Poe’s obituary—or at least a small portion of it. Consider the opening paragraph:

“EDGAR ALLAN POE is dead. He died in Baltimore the day before yesterday. This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was well known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends; and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars. ” 18

19 “Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name. ” -courtesy of the Poe Museum

20 That enemy was Rufus Wilmot Griswold, who wrote Poe's obituary in the New York Tribune under the pseudonym "Ludwig. " While Griswold disguised his identity, he made no such attempt to hide his scorn.

21 Griswold had a longstanding grudge against Poe, and contrived a plot to capitalize on the author's body of work and simultaneously sabotage his reputation. Griswold made a sketchy arrangement with Poe's mother-in-law to edit the first posthumous edition of Poe's collected writings and also expanded his obituary of Poe into a long-form work of slander entitled "Memoir of the Author. "

22 Through forged letters and invented details of Poe's life, Griswold intimated that Poe was guilty of everything from incest to deserting the Army to betraying his friends. These libelous claims would later be exposed, but nonetheless Griswold's narrative came to shape the public's perception of Poe. As Poe's great French admirer and translator Baudelaire remarked, if you talk of Poe with an American, he might somewhat reluctantly confess his genius.

23 Even so, Griswold would also go so far as to discuss “the poet’s disordered life; his alcoholized breath, ready to have taken light at any candle-flame; of his vagabond habits; he will reiterate that the poet was an erratic and strange being, an orbit-less planet…”

For roughly the next one hundred years, all subsequent interpretations of Poe’s life were based on Griswold’s scathing obituary, now seen as one of the most heinous examples of character assassination ever recorded. 24

25 So pretty much everything you think you know about Poe is wrong.

26 Jan 19, 1809 Poe Born Edgar Poe is born in Boston to Elizabeth Arnold Poe and David Poe, Jr. , both traveling actors. The couple already has one son named Henry.

27 Dec 10, 1810 Sister Born Poe's sister Rosalie is born. A few months before her birth, David Poe deserts the family, leaving Poe's mother alone with three children. Because of David’s desertion, rumors begin to circulate (unfairly, according to the math) about Rosalie’s parentage. Making matters worse, Elizabeth Poe soon falls ill with tuberculosis.

28 Dec 8, 1811 Parents' Death Elizabeth Arnold Poe dies of tuberculosis in Richmond, Virginia. Within days, David Poe also dies of tuberculosis. With no parents to take care of them, the three children of the family are split up. Henry goes to live with his paternal grandparents. A Richmond couple, John and Frances Allan, take in Edgar as a foster child. Rosalie is taken in by another Richmond family named Mackenzie. Both Edgar and Rosalie adopt their foster families' names as their middle names.

29 Feb 28, 1829 Death of Foster Mother Poe's foster mother, Frances Allan, with whom he was still close, dies in Richmond. Poe—by now a sergeant major in the Army—obtains leave to travel to her funeral.

30 Aug 1, 1831 Death of Brother Edgar's older brother Henry dies of either tuberculosis or cholera at the age of 27.

31 May 16, 1836 Marriage Poe—now 27 years old—marries his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, at a ceremony in Richmond, Virginia.

32 Jan 1842 Virginia Falls Ill While singing at the piano, Virginia begins to bleed from her mouth, a symptom of untreated tuberculosis. Her illness grows progressively worse.

Jan 30, 1847 Death of Wife Poe's wife Virginia dies of tuberculosis at their home in the Bronx. Poe has been so despondent during the final months of her illness that friends thought he was going insane. The loss of his wife sends Poe into a downward spiral of alcoholism. 33

The cause of death for these unfortunate women was always officially listed as “drowning” because the disease so weakened (consumed) their lungs that they ultimately drowned in their own blood. Women’s handkerchiefs in Poe’s day always had one of three designs embroidered on them: cherries, strawberries, or roses. Since all three were bright red, they helped disguise the fact that these doomed young ladies were coughing up blood. This is why Poe is our only author who invariably foreshadows death through the symbol of red. 34

35 It is also worth noting the story of Elizabeth Arnold Poe, Edgar’s mother. An actress considered beautiful and young-looking, Elizabeth frequently played the role of Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

36 As a single mom, Elizabeth could not afford childcare. Consequently, she took young Edward to theater with her each night, where he had a seat reserved on the front row…

37 …where he could watch his mother kill herself night after night.

38 After the curtains closed, an usher would come out and lead young Edgar back stage, where his mother would be cleaning the blood off of herself. Then they would go out to eat dinner.

39 Now consider Poe’s classic poem “Annabel Lee” in light of these facts.

40 “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. ” Stanza 2

41 “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. ” Stanza 2

42 “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. ” Stanza 3

43 “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. ” Stanza 3

44 “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 life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. ” Stanza 6

45 “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 life and my bride, In the sepulchre there by the sea, In her tomb by the sounding sea. ” Stanza 6

46 Is it any wonder, then, that Poe so frequently addresses ideas of love, and beautiful women, and the death and eventually resurrection (sometimes symbolic, sometimes not) of those women?

47 In essence, “We loved each other so much that heaven got jealous and killed my beautiful bride, who was then, of course, shut up in a tomb, where I now remain with her. ”

48 Is this to be taken literally? Figuratively? Does this take place in the poet’s mind? Did he kill himself? Or is there some other explanation?

49 In conclusion, does the lens of biographical criticism affect your understanding of the poem?

50 EXTENSION: Your assignment is to select a poet, and with a partner, demonstrate how to understand one of the author’s poems in light of biographical criticism. In essence, you must answer the question we posed with Poe: How does an understanding of the author’s life and experiences help us better understand the author’s work?

For this assignment, you will work with a partner to develop a ten-minute presentation on the poet of your choosing. Your presentation can be on Power. Point or Prezi, and should address how the author’s life shaped his/her writing. You will use the computer/projector to present your project to the class. You may analyze one poem or several— whatever you feel will best help your audience understand the points you are trying to make. 51

52 Your grade will be a direct reflection of how clearly you demonstrate the connection between the author’s life and his/her writing. Have fun!

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