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Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Poems (Library of Classic Poets)

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The book "Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe", contains thirty one works by Edgar Allan Poe. Ranging from sonnets of love to personal depiction's and morbid descripive poems. Such selections as "The Raven", "Lenore", "Annabel Lee", "To Helen", and my favorite poem "Alone" are included in "Poems Of Edgar Allan Poe". Poe's poetry is a beautiful display of human nature and emotion. The poetry portrays his abstract look at the world, especially in the poem "Alone" where a sympathetic nature arises in readers from understanding exactly what he poetically writes. With Poe's descriptions of being an odd child during his youth, readers empathize with him and understand his sadness. Give Poe's work a try you may find a strange connection of your own.

Most people know that Edgar Allen Poe wrote poetry. Of course, you'd be hard-pressed to make them quote a line that doesn't involve ravens.

Well, it's time for some poetry homework -- "The Raven" is neither Poe's most beautiful nor his most striking poem. That is reserved for other, more obscure works in Poe's "Complete Poetry" -- and while one might expect the ghostly or macabre to be all throughout his work, it's also filled with transcendent beauty, wistfulness, and some truly amazing wordwork.

Over his lifetime, Poe tried out many styles -- there are sonnets, short hymns, long rambling odes written in dramatic, vaguely Shakespearean style ("O, human love! thou spirit given/On Earth, of all we hope in Heaven!"), acrostics, little exercises in self-reflection, a lyrical song or two, and some haunting stories rendered in verse like the bittersweet "Annabel Lee."

And the content of these poems is just as diverse. Some of them are distinctly dark -- sunken cities, tolling bells, haunted palaces, thoughts on the lingering spirits of the dead, abandoned valleys, and loved ones that have been stolen away by death (" I pray to God that she may lie/For ever with unopened eye/While the pale sheeted ghosts go by!"). And yes, it has the one about a midnight dreary, and a creepy raven with eyes like "a demon's that is dreaming."

And there are a lot of moments of beauty -- lush descriptions of nature, bittersweet dreams, love for a beautiful girl, and elfin odes to those who "put out the star-light/With the breath from their pale faces/About twelve by the moon-dial..." But in many of these, Poe manages to add a melancholy atmosphere -- just look at "Bridal Ballad," whose narrator assures us that she is happy, but who is haunted by the "dead who is forsaken," her former lover.

Yeah, Poe's verse tends to be about as cheerful as his best known fiction, and often with some of the same preoccupations. He was a little less successful in verse at times, as occasionally you get some very strained verse schemes, like the terribly awkward "Eulalie" ("Now Doubt - now Pain/Come never again/For her soul gives me sigh for sigh").

But like his stories, Poe's poems are spun out of exquisite, dreamlike words that can sometimes evolve into nightmares. This guy could evoke everything from ghosts to fairy-tales, brides to wormlike horrors. Even the more sentimental moments have a dark edge ("Oh, may her sleep/As it is lasting, so be deep!/Soft may the worms about her creep!"). And he also wraps his verse in some truly beautiful natural metaphors -- ancient forests, flowers, misty moons, and many other beautiful touches.

And Poe's poetry even allows a window into his own mind at times, most painfully expressed as "from childhood's hour I have not been/As others were -- I have not seen/As others saw -- I could not bring/My passions from a common spring..." and the "mystery which binds me still."

For anyone who can appreciate his exquisite use of words, the "Complete Poetry of Edgar Allen Poe" is a must-read -- full of dark, meditative little gems and exquisite language.

The Raven, Annabel Lee, Eldorado, The City in the Sea, and The Bells are commonly found in anthologies, but much of Poe's poetry is not widely read today. I enjoyed this inexpensive introduction (published by Barnes and Noble Books) to Poe's poetry, but I was disappointed by the absence of an introduction, footnotes, and commentary. The poems are apparently arranged chronologically from 1827 to 1840; Poe's best known poems are in the latter half.

Poe's best poetry is marked by creativity and innovation, sometimes unexpectedly transitioning from a theme of love and beauty to one of despair and death. I consider The City in the Sea, The Sleeper, The Valley of the Unrest, The Haunted Palace, The Conqueror Worm, For Annie, and Annabel Lee to be among the best examples of Poe's imaginative, haunting descriptions of death and dying.

Poe's early poetry, and some of his later works, are reminiscent of English romantic poetry. At his own expense Poe printed his first book, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827). Poe's style in these earliest poems - Tamerlane, Song, Dreams, Spirits of the Dead, Evening Star, A Dream Within a Dream, Stanzas, A Dream, The Happiest Day --- The Happiest Hour, and The Lake - is characterized by lyrical descriptions, flowery language, and romantic themes.

I enjoyed the long poem Tamerlane. Tamerlane (or Tamburlaine, or Timur), a Tartar warrior of the fourteenth century, had amassed an immense empire, and was now reflecting on a distant, but not forgotten, youthful love. Following legend, Poe supposes that Tamerlane was born a lowly peasant, but it is more likely that he was descendant of the famous Khans. (In 1996 the newly independent Uzbekistan celebrated the 660th anniversary of the birth of Timur Khan.)

As in The Raven, Poe often employed refrains in later poems. We see Poe experimenting with this poetic technique in one of his earliest efforts, the lyrical poem titled Song. Spirits of the Dead is a contemplative look at death, not a poem of terror. A Dream Within a Dream questions reality itself.

I had more difficulty with the lengthy, early poem Al Aaraaf. This romantic fantasy portrays a visitation from a distant world "near four bright suns" to our lovely Earth, the home of the "Idea of Beauty".

Two poems, An Enigma and A Valentine, challenge the reader to uncover hidden names within the poetry itself. (They reminded me of Poe's secret code in his mystery The Gold Bug.) I have yet to unravel either riddle.

I found this book to be decent, even though I'm not one who cares much for poetry. Poe is an excellent poet and I recommend reading all of his poems.

Edgar Allan Poe sure does something with writting and reality that all of us would like to do. He is able to write all autobiographies, but substatute it with something that you wouldn't even imangine that he is talking about himself. He has to be the author that suffered the most his whole life. But now after his death, we learn to appreciate his life, and his place when he was here on earth. He is the best author that ever lived until this very day.