Poe & Shakespeare

[Guest RachaelAnn]

Is anyone else as addicted to either of them as me? In my opinion they are the greatest writers that have ever lived.

Poe's insight to the human mind and psyche is amazing. He could bring out the darker side of our fears and hopes better than anyone.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, had the greatest imagination I have seen. His plays were so dramatic, that it really makes you appreciate what you have, yet desire for what the characters had. I mean who wouldn't want a Romeo & Juliet kind of love? Minus the suicide.

Rachael

[Sally]

Those are two of my favorites, Rachel.

I learned to read at the age of three, my older sister was so upset that they were not going to teach that in Kindergarten that she came home and convinced my mother to teach her - I decided to do so as well, I did everything that my sister did (at that point it was considered acceptable)

My mother was a former English teacher so she had no problems in teaching us and it just so happened that my bedroom had been their study before I was born - built in bookshelves to the ceilings!

On the top shelf were the books I wanted to read - the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Having read both before I started to the first grade, the library at the Elementary School was a real disappointment so my moter opened up one of the glass covered book cases and got out the Shakespeare collection for me - hooked on another author!

I love to read things written in different times, like a time machine transporting you into the past but I might suggest some Jules Verne - like a time machine taking you into the past to look at the future which for the most part is all in the past now.

Love ya,

Sally

[Guest Chrysee]

Is anyone else as addicted to either of them as me? In my opinion they are the greatest writers that have ever lived.

Poe's insight to the human mind and psyche is amazing. He could bring out the darker side of our fears and hopes better than anyone.

Shakespeare, on the other hand, had the greatest imagination I have seen. His plays were so dramatic, that it really makes you appreciate what you have, yet desire for what the characters had. I mean who wouldn't want a Romeo & Juliet kind of love? Minus the suicide.

Rachael

Don't forget that Poe is credited with having invented the detective novel (seriously!) 'Murders of the Rue Morgue' was literally the very first 'who dunnit?'The author who has been the sun in my universe since I first read him in college (and we're talkin' the early 70's here) is James Joyce. He, however, was mad about Shakespeare.

When I was in the sixth grade, I decided that, like other kids my age around me, I wanted to belong to a gang. My life's desire at the time was to own a switchblade knife. When West Side Story came to the local theatre, I knew nothing more about it then it had something to do with gangs. Now we had read Romeo & Juliet in school, but I shrugged it off as dumb mush.

Well, one Saturday afternoon I went to see West Side Story and came out in shock. First, it never occurred to me that tangling with swtichblades could cause death. I figured you'd fight a while and then go home and ask mom what was for dinner. But, oh, the thought of dressing up like that and singing those incredible songs brought me to tears. I bought the soundtrack album and lived to sing all of Tony's parts. By the way, I do have a good singing voice. . .I've sung in bands and such.

After that, I was ready for Romeo & Juliet. When the Zefferelli version came out, I was in love with Olivia Hussey.

And 'Shakespeare in Love' blew me away! I own a copy and watch it when I need an emotional jumpstart.

Lastly, if you should like to see where the story of Romeo & Juliet came from, look up the legend of Tristan & Isolde.

Hugs,

Chrysalis

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

I'm afraid that my Shakespeare experience was limited to high school...

But Poe?

Love him...Totally amazing works!

I have some of his works in my bookcase!

Huggs

Donna Jean

[Guest Sam_P]

I was watching an episode of Wolf Lake about a week ago and there was a heart-rending recitation of Poe's 'Alone'. (I would link to it but I'm not sure that the rest of the video is PG-13. It's well worth looking up if you like mixing poetry and werewolves though. )

For anyone that doesn't know it:

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/1434-Edgar-Allan-Poe-Alone

[Guest RachaelAnn]

Haven't read Alone, but it sounds intriguing. Aside from The Raven, I'm partial to The Bells and The Fall Of The House Of Usher. Both mind blowing in my opinion.

I have to admint that is was high school english that introduced me to Shakespeare. The first thing we read was the most common play in school: Romeo & Juliet. After that we did Julius Caesar. By that time I was hooked. I have since read Macbeth, and started both Othello and Hamlet.

If you would rather a modernized version to understand the movie "O" is based on Othello. It was done pretty well, and its in modern speaking, not Shakespearean.

I was given a copy of Poe's complete works, and Shakespeare's complete works. The only other book I have that comes close is my copy of the Illiad by Homer. I love them all.

Rachael

[Guest Chrysee]

Haven't read Alone, but it sounds intriguing. Aside from The Raven, I'm partial to The Bells and The Fall Of The House Of Usher. Both mind blowing in my opinion.

I have to admint that is was high school english that introduced me to Shakespeare. The first thing we read was the most common play in school: Romeo & Juliet. After that we did Julius Caesar. By that time I was hooked. I have since read Macbeth, and started both Othello and Hamlet.

If you would rather a modernized version to understand the movie "O" is based on Othello. It was done pretty well, and its in modern speaking, not Shakespearean.

I was given a copy of Poe's complete works, and Shakespeare's complete works. The only other book I have that comes close is my copy of the Illiad by Homer. I love them all.

Forgot to mention: I would recommend the poetry of Baudelaire. He was heavily influenced by Poe's work, sensing in it his own feelings of meloncholy & regret. He devoted himself, aside from pursuing his own verse, to translating Poe's work into French.

You might check out the book 'Fleur de Mal.'

Just a thought.

P.S. Did you know that the football team the Baltimore Ravens was named in memory of his living there?

Rachael

[Guest RachaelAnn]

I had no idea that the Ravens were named in his memory. I love that. Poe deserves to be remembered in my opinion.

The only thing that bothers me is that he was so miserable through most of his life. A man with so much beauty and raw pain, that wasn't fully realized until after his death, except by those that knew him personally.

Here is the account of his final days. I found it at http://www.celebritymorgue.com/ :

"An account by Hervey Allen, August 1927:

[Poe] traveled by steamer to Baltimore and arrived there on September twentyninth. Exactly what happened to him in that city cannot now be ascertained. An election was in progress, and the preponderance of evidence points to the fact that he began to drink and fell into the hands of a gang of repeaters who probably gave him drugged liquor and voted him. On October third he was found by Dr. James E. Snodgrass, an old friend, in a, horrible condition at a low tavern in Lombard Street. Summoning a relative of Poe, Dr. Snodgrass had the now unconscious and dying poet taken in a carriage to the Washington Hospital and put into the care of Dr. J. J. Moran, the resident physician. Several days of delirium ensued with only a few intervals of partial consciousness. He called repeatedly for one "Reynolds," and gave vent to every indication of utter despair. Finally on Sunday morning, October 7, 1849, "He became quiet and seemed to rest for a short time. Then, gently, moving his head, he said, 'Lord help my poor soul.'" As he had lived so he died--in great misery and tragedy.

Poe is buried in the Old Western Burial Ground in Baltimore, Maryland. Every January 19, Poe's birthday, for more than fifty years a man dressed in black and fedora has left cognac accompanied by three red roses on Poe's grave."

There is also a website dedicated to Poe's memory that I frequent.

http://www.houseofusher.net/index.html

Rachael

[Guest RachaelAnn]

I'd have to say my favorite of all of Shakespeare's writings is the St. Crispin's speech:

Enter the KING

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here

But one ten thousand of those men in England

That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?

My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;

If we are mark'd to die, we are enow

To do our country loss; and if to live,

The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;

It yearns me not if men my garments wear;

Such outward things dwell not in my desires.

But if it be a sin to covet honour,

I am the most offending soul alive.

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.

God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour

As one man more methinks would share from me

For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!

Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,

That he which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart; his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put into his purse;

We would not die in that man's company

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age,

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember, with advantages,

What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,

Familiar in his mouth as household words-

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-

Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered-

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition;

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

It always chokes me up. As I feel it would for all those of you that are veterans here.

Rachael

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Quiz:

Poe or Shakespeare?

(Public domain material)

And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves

Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand

As they have done for centuries, as they will

For centuries to come, when not a soul

Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks,

When England is not England, when mankind

Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea,

Consolingly disastrous, will return

While the strange starfish, hugely magnified,

Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

Lizzy

[Guest RachaelAnn]

Quiz:

Poe or Shakespeare?

(Public domain material)

And all the time the waves, the waves, the waves

Chase, intersect and flatten on the sand

As they have done for centuries, as they will

For centuries to come, when not a soul

Is left to picnic on the blazing rocks,

When England is not England, when mankind

Has blown himself to pieces. Still the sea,

Consolingly disastrous, will return

While the strange starfish, hugely magnified,

Waits in the jewelled basin of a pool.

Lizzy

I'm not familiar with that, but it sounds like both. The hard part is that Poe talked in metaphors much like Shakespeare did. But at a guess, I would say Poe, because it's not worded in old english.

Rachael

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Another: Poe or Shakespeare?

(Public Domain)

Lo! Death has reared himself a throne

In a strange city lying alone

Far down within the dim West,

Where the good and the bad

And the worst and the best

Have gone to their eternal rest.

There shrines and palaces and towers

Time-eaten towers that tremble not!

Resemble nothing that is ours.

Around, by lifting winds forgot,

Resignedly beneath the sky

The melancholy waters lie.

Lizzy

[Guest Chrysee]

Has anyone read Poe's novel 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket'?