Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jajdude]

What is your opinion of Poe? I think he was an incredible writer. I have never read anything quite like his work. Been reading his short stories lately, damn, the man had skills. Also, some of his poems are really good.

Here's my favorite Poe poem:


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 was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

[it's full of stars]

I like him a lot. In fact I like him more than Dostoyevsky (same time, no?), who I've never been able to appreciate.

There was a feeling of abandon in Poe's works, of creative liberation. I really got into his victorian horror and detective work. I counted and I've read 7 or so from his works.
Quite entertaining.

[Poemer]

I'm not that big a fan of much of Poe's poetry, although The Conquerer Worm was my favorite poem as a kid.

His short fiction is interesting to read, and highly entertaining.

[Harpeau]

I love his horror stories~ The Telltale Heart was cool. In grade 7, my teacher showed a slide/tape presentation. Was kinda scarry at the time. He was an awesome writer. I do prefer Fyodor Dosteyevsky though.

[VanIslander]

In grade school I thought he was incredible.

My first year university English teacher wasn't so thrilled with him.

[Underwaterbob]

One of the masters of the run-on sentence. I like him though.

[blurgalurgalurga]

I dig 'the Bells.' He had a really tight rhyme scheme...


"Hear the tolling of the bells -
Iron bells!
What a world of solemn thought their monody compels!
In the silence of the night,
How we shiver with affright
At the melancholy menace of their tone!
For every sound that floats
From the rust within their throats
Is a groan.
And the people - ah, the people -
They that dwell up in the steeple,
All alone,
And who, tolling, tolling, tolling,
In that muffled monotone,
Feel a glory in so rolling
On the human heart a stone -
They are neither man nor woman -
They are neither brute nor human -
They are Ghouls: -
And their king it is who tolls: -
And he rolls, rolls, rolls,
Rolls
A paean from the bells!
And his merry bosom swells
With the paean of the bells!
And he dances, and he yells;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the paean of the bells: -
Of the bells:
Keeping time, time, time
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the throbbing of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells: -
To the sobbing of the bells: -
Keeping time, time, time,
As he knells, knells, knells,
In a happy Runic rhyme,
To the rolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells -
To the tolling of the bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells, -
To the moaning and the groaning of the bells. "

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/medny/venturi-poebells.html

I like a lot of his short stories too. 'Hopfrog' was especially nasty.

[seethetraffic]

"And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;"

http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html

[jajdude]

From "The Bells" I like this line:

To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells

tintinnabulation is a fantastic word.

[blurgalurgalurga]

Yeah, I like that word too. I actually learned it from that poem.

[jajdude]

I bet a few people learned it from that poem. It's not a word you see every day. Ah, I just recently read "Hopfrog" for the first time -- got all his stories in a big ass book. It was pretty damn good too.

Another writer I'm curious about is Lovecraft. My friend has a book of his stories but is too stingy to give it to me.

Damn China and its limited book selection.

[peppermint]

I like the mysteries more than the gothic horror ones. I saw an adaptation of A Cask of Amontillado performed in a wine cellar built in the 1700's that was pretty great though.

[Oreovictim]

If you like Poe and you like prog rock, I recommend the concept album, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by The Alan Parsons Project. Buying the CD is worth it just for this song.

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=dhZlfC4LVRY

This one's good, too, but the intro guitar part reminds me of that "Lonely Day, Lonely Nights" by the Bee Gees.

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=zkC0pFf0G4g&feature=related

[it's full of stars]

[blurgalurgalurga]

Yeah, I'd love to see 'the cask of amontillado' performed...creeepy stuff. The whole punch line ending of it may be a cliche now, but it sure wasn't when Poe wrote it.
I'd like to drink some amontillado, too.
And, as somebody mentioned earlier, 'the tell tale heart'--yikes! I read it as a kid and my nightmares based on it remain among the most enduring and horrific of all my childhood memories. Not that I had a horrific childhood, but I had my share of nightmares...and they were, really, pretty bloody Poe-shaped.
Hey, jajdude, lovecraft is worth a look and pretty cool and influential and all, but don't expect it to be anything like as good as Poe, in terms of prose. Lovecraft's good, but comparing him to Poe is like comparing Edgar Rice Burroughs to R.L. Stevenson. You got your sweet pulp on one side, the sweetest pulp ever maybe, but on the other side, you got...well, gold, for lack of a better word.
Pure gold.