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and sonorousness, of repetition and refrain which will be found elsewhere in Poe. In ‘The Philosophy of Composition ’ Poe explains the steps by which these elements were built up and combined into the present poem. It is possible that he tells exactly what took place in his own mind. He was, however, rather fond of hoaxing people; he was also fond of exact intellectual manipulation; and it is very possible that his account is really an after-statement of what might have been. However that may be, the poem is a wonderful example of the emotional, even sentimental, lyric of the middle of the 19th century. It is a mistake to think of Poe's poetry as being more music than meaning. ‘The Raven’ has a very distinct meaning although not such as could easily be reduced to a systematic statement. In our own day such reveries and meditations seem sentimental and old fashioned; a century ago they were the natural moods of hundreds of young men. And no poem in our literature better expresses just the mood that in that post-Byronic day was so common, not even anything by Byron himtelf. As an expression of its author and its own time ‘The Raven’ is perfect. It realises an ideal of beauty which is rare to-day and which many to-day find it impossible to appreciate, but it it an ideal of beauty and it is realised.
Edward Everett Hale.
The Dreamer: Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
A romantic rendering of the life-story of Edgar Allan Poe
"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in waking, to find they have been upon the verge of the great secret."
This study of Edgar Allan Poe, poet and man, is simply an attempt to make something like a finished picture of the shadowy sketch the biographers, hampered by the limitations of proved fact, must, at best, give us.
To this end I have used the story-teller's license to present the facts in picturesque form. Yet I believe I have told a true story—true to the spirit if not to the letter—for I think I have made Poe and the other persons of the drama do nothing they may not have done, say nothing they may not have said, feel nothing they may not have felt. In many instances the opinions, and even the words I have placed in Poe's mouth are his own—found in his published works or his letters.
I owe much, of course, to the writers of Poe books before and up to my time. Among these, I would make especial and grateful acknowledgment
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