Week One - Task #01. - “Dying Ember”

[Prof. Sindor Aloyarc]

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

Task:
What’s your favorite and/or least favorite piece of Poe’s writing? If you’re not particularly familiar with his work, you may research some and leave a review, or choose another writer who perhaps includes similar themes as he does in their work, whether they are also a poet or not. Share your Opinion with us by posting below! In 75 words or more, describe what draws you specifically, or why you don’t care for one of his selections as much.

Alternatively you may contribute an original Poem titled “Dying Ember” with the same word count minimum.

This task is worth 15 beans, with an additional 15 bonus beans for completing all Week One tasks by end of activity. Deadline is 11:59pm (HOL time) on Halloween, Monday October 31st.

[February Fortescue]

I love Edgar Allan Poe! I have a Halloween tree dedicated to him, and I memorized my favorite poem of his several years ago.

Here's the first verse of Annabel Lee:


It was many and many a year ago,
   In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
   By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
   Than to love and be loved by me.


I love this poem because Poe does a masterful job of painting a picture with words. I can feel the narrator's loss and see the final line very clearly in my mind. Very, very...creepy.

Poe also wrote a poem I personally really, really, really (did I say really enough?) don't like. I understand the repetition's purpose is to mimic the sounds the bells make, but I think it's rather annoying. I used to have a good laugh while listening to recordings of people reading this poem and sounding oh, so serious.

an excerpt from The Bells:


What a gush of euphony voluminously wells!
               How it swells!
               How it dwells
           On the Future! how it tells
           Of the rapture that impels
         To the swinging and the ringing
           Of the bells, bells, bells,
         Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
               Bells, bells, bells—
  To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells!

[Aura Nightmoon]

I have too many, but one I recently read again was The Cask of Amontillado, the first piece of Poe I read back in my first high school-level literature course. Technically the curriculum gave me only the first few pages of the short story because the end was "dark and gruesome" or something like that, but without the ending, it loses its essence, and yes, I found the full short story online and read the rest on my own.

Maybe a slight spoiler alert for someone who hasn't read it and wants to?
I love the use of irony, both dramatic and verbal, throughout this piece. It's the suspense of knowing that something is going to happen to Fortunato and that Montresor keeps trying to get Fortunato to go back, but Fortunato's love of wine makes him keep going forward to where Montresor wants him. The whole part of Fortunato saying that a cough won't kill him and then Montresor's reply that, no, a cough won't kill him, also leaves so much for the reader to contemplate, especially once the understanding is finally there. I don't want to give too much away if someone hasn't read it yet. It's really short, and it's so good! It's a highly recommended read!

[Kalgri Sicaria]

Dying Ember:

Guttering, sputtering,
Waning, dying,
The light finally fading,
Darkness rising

Cold encroaching,
Lack of motion,
Whispers of slumber,
Midnight approaching

Silence enduring,
At the close of the day,
Branches creaking,
The trees start to sway

One small trail of smoke,
Rising lazily,
Up out the chimney,
Fading away

The coals in the grate,
Dimly glow,
Hot to the touch,
But cooling slow

No-one there,
To witness the sight,
The dying of embers,
And darkest night

[Raevia Ward]

Dying Ember:
Guttering, sputtering,
Waning, dying,
The light finally fading,
Darkness rising

Gosh I love the imagery you used here...Just, the movement and the repeated continuous forms, I love it.


It's so hard to pick a favourite Poe work, I particularly love his short stories. If I have to choose, I think my favourite of his is, incidentally, The Raven itself. I love the musicality of it, the alliteration and the assonance is used so masterfully that it's really nice to listen to, but also conveys the whole feeling of being half awake-and half dreaming. It creates this hazy atmosphere that the poem starts describing the speaker in, you know, he's sitting there working on his books, the sentences are running into each other in his head (not unlike how the poem itself runs nicely) half asleep and half reading.

I'm particularly fond of the "“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;/Let me see, then, what thereat is" (33-4) where the rhyme is in the middle of the line, because 1) it's such a clever rhyme, I love reading it aloud 2) it's creating suspense for the second part of the line "and this mystery explore—" which is a poetic device dear to me. Poe is, in general, a master of creating the atmosphere, I think.

Putting aside the artistry of the poem, I think an old man talking to a raven is also such a fun concept to read about especially because recently I've learned ravens actually do talk!! They are able to imitate human sounds pretty well!

[Rhaneyra Black]

One of my favorite poems by Poe would honestly be A Dream Within A Dream, it is so beautifully written and the imagery given as you read it is so beautiful and moving that one cannot help but a shed a tear, although I am quite an emotionally driven person, maybe that is the reason. A Dream Within A Dream is written by Poe to look at and explore the significance and the reality of life.

Reading how the speaker watches as those things he held so important, the things held so dear to his heart, are now taken away, and he has to realize the reality of the situation, that it is hard to hold on to them. As the poem goes on, he realizes that he has no control, no matter how hard or how much he tries to hold on to those things, he begins to question whether or not if life is just, "A Dream Within A Dream"

Below is the poem :

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

[Prof. Felicia Hartwick]

One of my favorite pieces from Poe is his poem, The Bells. This piece was not released until after his death in 1849. It tells the story of life by the different Bells. What a mind Poe had to be able to relate to the stages life to bells and the sounds they ring.

It begins with the sound of merriment silver bells of a sleigh ride in the "icy air of night". It brings to mind of the joys of youth during the winter season.

Hear the sledges with the bells—
Silver bells!

Then it moves on to the "mellow" sounds of golden bells of a wedding, another joyful event of life. It tells of the delight of the day and looking forward to the future.

Hear the mellow wedding bells,
Golden bells!

The third stanza changes from the joyful sound of bells to a more dark sound of bells.

Now we have the Brazen bells. It tells of life in the maturity stage. A life lived and knowing you're closer to the end of life.

Hear the loud alarum bells—
Brazen bells!

The last bells we read about are the iron bells, the melancholy sound of the tolling bells of death.

Hear the tolling of the bells—
Iron bells!

[Emily Spencer]

I love Edgar Allan Poe, so it's very hard to pick a favorite. That being said, there are some of his poems that I like better than others.

Ironically, my favorite poem by Poe is The Raven. Not only does it speak to my Gothic-loving soul, but I find that as I grow older and experience life more, the meaning goes much deeper than being aesthetically pleasing. The poem speaks of loss and longing, regret, and a hint of 'what could have been'. Without delving too much into personal matters, for the sake of this discussion, suffice it to say that I've known my share of loss and 'what ifs'. Not that I am nearly as poetic as Mr. Poe, but the words of the poem sound (at least in tone) of how I might have voiced things were I so inclined to do so.

Other than the obvious, Raven, another one of my favorites (like Rhaneyra Black stated) is A Dream Within A Dream. Published in 1820, the poem suggests that the life we lead is merely someone else's dream. I love psychological and philosophical things like that. I remember at a lecture I attended some years ago, there was a similar question posed. Namely, what if we exist only as a figment of someone's imagination? Or what if you are actually in a dream state/coma yourself and everything we think is real is really not? Daunting to think about, but also fascinating as well. With that in mind, here are several lines from the poem that really speaks to me:

You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

I'm not so much into Poe's poetry! There seems to be a certain melancholy, or moroseness, to his writing which doesn't come naturally to me and so I have to be in a certain mood to give him the appreciation he deserves.

That said, I love the words and phrases so often quoted from The Raven, especially that term 'Nevermore', or, to put it more fully "Quoth the Raven, "Nevermore."" Even if one doesn't know the poem (and it is rather somber), that phrase has so often been gleefully used in so many instances; it's infamous!

[Prof. Will Lestrange]

The first piece of Poe's writing I remember, though with a sad ending, was the Masque of the Red Death (when I was young enough that I thought "Masque" was some archaic spelling of "mask"). It has a relevant lesson for our current times: you can't buy your way out of a plague via fancy luxury - though the ending can feel very unsatisfying for those who like to see villains clearly defeated.

The collection also came with The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum; of those, for whatever reason I think I liked The Tell-Tale Heart the least as the thumping constantly interrupted my reading flow!

[Louis Walles]

I have never really read Edgar Allan Poe and only heard about him after watching a movie about the said poet. I funny enough, really enjoyed the poem, which inspired this activity. 'The Raven' is such a wonderful mysterious poem, which makes you feel like you are a part of it. There is no poem that I have not enjoyed of his, maybe simply because I do not know more of his poems. He was a great writer.

[Harry Walles]

I cannot help but stop and look at the fiery flame.
Now torrid is just the thing,
To get me wondering if the flame is impassioned.

How happy is the 1st dec!
Does the dec make you shiver?
does it?

Firelight is dusky spirit.
dusky spirit is firelight.
Does the firelight make you shiver?
does it?

Pay attention to the hearth,
the hearth is the most fat dwelling of all.
Now stocky is just the thing,
To get me wondering if the hearth is gross.

All that is middle is not sept,
sept, by all account is early.
Now primeval is just the thing,
To get me wondering if the sept is incipient.

I cannot help but stop and look at the feb conflagration.
Does the conflagration make you shiver?
does it?