David L. (marauder34) reviewed The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe on + 63 more book reviews
I started rediscovering Edgar Allan Poe last month on vacation with my family. Thanks to a Kindle I recently was given, I was able to take "The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe" with me.
There are certain poems of Poe's that we all know from our days in middle school and high school, like "Annabel Lee," and it was wonderful to have those at my fingertips. It was an ironic delight to search for the city of gold with "Eldorado," and to sink into the sublime gloom of "The Raven." And I can say it was an honest thrill to discover the despair of "A Dream Within a Dream" and the sweet, tender message of "To Frances S. Osgood," which poem I have no recollection of reading before.
In those respects, reading a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry was like a chance meeting with someone unseen for years, and discovering what a remarkable person you wish you had known better.
On the other hand, there was a lot of other stuff in this book, including long sections of plays that Poe worked on but never finished, and poems a'plenty, including poems that scholars think he wrote under an assumed name while he was working as the editor of a literary magazine. A lot of these just weren't that interesting or memorable, and suddenly I understood why schools usually make students read only a few of them.
There are certain poems of Poe's that we all know from our days in middle school and high school, like "Annabel Lee," and it was wonderful to have those at my fingertips. It was an ironic delight to search for the city of gold with "Eldorado," and to sink into the sublime gloom of "The Raven." And I can say it was an honest thrill to discover the despair of "A Dream Within a Dream" and the sweet, tender message of "To Frances S. Osgood," which poem I have no recollection of reading before.
In those respects, reading a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's poetry was like a chance meeting with someone unseen for years, and discovering what a remarkable person you wish you had known better.
On the other hand, there was a lot of other stuff in this book, including long sections of plays that Poe worked on but never finished, and poems a'plenty, including poems that scholars think he wrote under an assumed name while he was working as the editor of a literary magazine. A lot of these just weren't that interesting or memorable, and suddenly I understood why schools usually make students read only a few of them.
