Oh Joy! Digging up The Raven! Have pulled the following information off of Dennis Jerz’s Literacy Weblog, and am planning on spending some time delving into the poem that beats as steadily as my heart (the Telltale Heart, of course!). If I have gained nothing more in my quest for education than a crummy 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper with a gold seal which I, as a custom picture framer, can make look simply wonderful, it is the ability and inspiration to delve deeper into things–all things, even things I’ve known for years:
Knowing Poe [Annotated Version of ‘The Raven’] (Maryland Public Television)
http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/writer/annotated.aspEdgar Allan Poe’s most popular poem, “The Raven,” tells the story of a man who gets a late-night visit from a mysterious bird that speaks only one word: “Nevermore.” | Sounds like a pretty simple story, right? | Guess again!
[Once upon a Tuesday weary, while I pondered, bleak and bleary,
Over many a quaint and curious entry of unblogged lore–
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my office door.
“‘Tis some advisee,” I muttered, “tapping at my office door–
Only this and nothing more.”
…Quoth my keyboard, “Blog some more!” –DGJ]
I can always depend upon your weblog to come up with something to stir me to research. Love Poe and have a brick from a house in which he briefly resided and an Edgar doll purchased through the EAP museum website overlooking me constantly as I write. Unfortunately, I learned much of “The Raven” phonetically for recitation, and much like the Polish songs I can still sing from grade school, I never understood what I was speaking or singing! I have bookmarked the website mentioned, and copied your blog entry to my own in the name of research. Thank you, sir!
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology
Useless bit of Poe trivia… when he was a student at the University of Virginia, he lived in room 13.
http://www.student.virginia.edu/~ravens/poe.html