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"Ulalume" as illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, circa 1847–1848.
"Ulalume" as illustrated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, circa 1847–1848. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882 was an English poet Illustrator, painter and Translator.

"Ulalume" is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Much like a few of Poe's other poems (such as "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "Lenore"), "Ulalume" focuses on the narrator's loss of a beautiful woman due to her untimely death. " The Raven " is a narrative poem by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in January 1845 " Annabel Lee " is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. " Lenore " is a Poem by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. Poe originally wrote the poem as an elocution piece and, as such, the poem is known for its focus on sound. Elocution is the study of formal speaking in Pronunciation, Grammar, style and tone. Additionally, it makes many allusions, especially to mythology, and the identity of Ulalume herself, if a real person, has been questioned.

Contents

Overview

The poem takes place on a night in the "lonesome October" with a gray sky as the leaves are withering for the autumn season. In the region of Weir, by the lake of Auber, the narrator roams with a "volcanic" heart. He has a "serious and sober" talk with his soul, though he does not realize it is October or where his roaming is leading him. He remarks on the stars as night falls, remarking on the brightest one, and wonders if it knows that the tears on his cheeks have not yet dried. A star is a massive luminous ball of plasma. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the Energy on Earth His soul, however, mistrusts the star and where it is leading them. Just as the narrator calms his soul, he realizes he unconsciously has walked to the vault of his "lost Ulalume" on the very night he had buried her one year before.

Analysis

Unlike Poe's poem "Annabel Lee," the narrator here is not conscious of his return to the grave of his lover. " Annabel Lee " is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. [1] This reveals the speaker's dependence on Ulalume and her love; his loss of her leaves him not only sad but absolutely devastated and, by visiting her grave, he unconsciously subjects himself to further self-inflicted anguish. [2] The poem has a heavy focus on decay and deterioration: the leaves are "withering" and the narrator's thoughts are "palsied. "[3] The verses are purposefully sonorous, built around sound to create feelings of sadness and anguish. [4] The poem employs Poe's typical theme of the "death of a beautiful woman," which he considered "the most poetical topic in the world. "[5] Biographers and critics have often suggested that Poe's obsession with this theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his mother Eliza Poe and his foster mother Frances Allan. Elizabeth Arnold Poe (1787–1811 was a English -born American actress and the mother of the American author Edgar Allan Poe. [6]

The identity of Ulalume is questionable. Poetically, the name Ulalume emphasizes the letter "L," a frequent device in Poe's female characters such as "Annabel Lee," "Eulalie," and "Lenore. L is the twelfth letter of the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is el or occasionally ell (ɛl " Annabel Lee " is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. " Eulalie," or " Eulalie - A Song," is a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, first published in the July 1845 issue of the The American " Lenore " is a Poem by the American author Edgar Allan Poe. "[7] If it really is a dead lover, Poe's choice to refer to Ulalume as "the thing" and "the secret" do not seem like endearing terms. [8] Ulalume may really be representative of death itself. [9]

Allusions

Much work has been done by scholars to identify all of Poe's allusions, most notably by Thomas Ollive Mabbott, though other scholars suggest that the names throughout the poem should be valued only because of their poetic sounds. Thomas Ollive Mabbott ( July 6, 1898 – May 28, 1968) was an American professor and scholar of Literature, perhaps best [10]

The title itself suggests wailing (from the Latin ululare). [11]

The narrator personifies his soul as the ancient Greek Psyche, representing the irrational but careful part of his subconsciousness. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca In Psychoanalysis, the psyche (ˈsaɪki refers to the forces in an individual that influence thought, Behavior and Personality. It is Psyche who first feels concerned about where they are walking and makes the first recognition that they have reached Ulalume's vault.

The bright star they see is Astarte, a goddess associated with Venus[3] and connected with fertility and sexuality. Astarte (from Greek Ἀστάρτη ( Astártē) is the name of a Goddess as known from Northwestern Semitic regions cognate in name origin The VENUS ( V ictoria E xperimental N etwork U nder the S ea project is a cabled sea floor observatory operated by the University Fertility is the natural capability of giving life As a measure "Fertility Rate" is the number of children born per couple person or population Generally speaking human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings The "sinfully scintillant planet" in the original final verse is another reference to Venus. [1] Astarte may represent a sexual temptress or a vision of the ideal. [12]

Mount Yaanek, with its "sulphurous currents" in the "ultimate climes of the pole," is actually Mount Erebus, a then newly discovered volcano in Antarctica. Mount Erebus in Antarctica is the southernmost active Volcano on Earth Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the [13]

The Auber and Weir references in the poem are to two contemporaries of Poe: Daniel François Esprit Auber, a composer of sad operatic tunes,[14] and Robert Walter Weir, a painter of the Hudson River School famous for his landscapes. Daniel François Esprit Auber ( January 29, 1782 – May 13, 1871) was a French Composer. Robert Walter Weir ( June 18, 1803 - May 1, 1889) was an American Artist, best known as an educator and as an historical The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by [15]

Publication history

"Ulalume" as it first appeared in the "American Review" in 1847.
"Ulalume" as it first appeared in the "American Review" in 1847.

Poe wrote the poem on the request of Reverend Cotesworth Bronson, who had asked Poe for a poem he could read at one of his lectures on public speaking. Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured deliberate manner intended to inform influence or entertain the listeners He asked Poe for something with "vocal variety and expression. " Bronson decided not to use the poem Poe sent him, "Ulalume. " Poe then submitted the poem to Sartain's Union Magazine, which rejected it as too dense. John Sartain ( 24 October, 1808 in London, England - 25 October 1897 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [16] Poe probably saw Bronson's request as a personal challenge as well as an opportunity to enhance his renown, especially after his previous poem "The Raven" had also been demonstrated for its elocution style. [17]

"Ulalume - A Ballad" was finally published, albeit anonymously, in the American Whig Review in December, 1847. The American Review, alternatively known as American Review A Whig Journal and American Whig Review, was a New York City -based monthly Originally, Poe had sold his essay "The Rationale of Verse," then unpublished, to the Review's editor George Hooker Colton. Colton did not immediately print the manuscript, so Poe exchanged it for "Ulalume. "[18]

It was reprinted by Nathaniel Parker Willis, still anonymously, in the Home Journal with a note asking who the author was, on Poe's request, to stir up interest. Nathaniel Parker Willis, also known as N P Willis, (January 20 1806 – January 20 1867 was an American Author, Poet and editor Some, including Evert Augustus Duyckinck, presumed that the poem's author was Willis. Evert Augustus Duyckinck ( November 23, 1816 &ndash August 13, 1878) was an American publisher and biographer [19] The initial publication had 10 stanzas. In Poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger Poem. In modern poetry the term is often equivalent with Strophe; in popular vocal music a stanza is Poe's literary executor Rufus Wilmot Griswold was the first to print "Ulalume" without its final stanza, now the standard version. Rufus Wilmot Griswold (February 13 1812 – August 27 1857 was an American anthologist, editor, Poet, and Critic. [20] Poe himself once recited the poem with the final stanza, but admitted it was not intelligible and that it was scarcely clear to himself. [21]

Critical response

Aldous Huxley, in his essay "Vulgarity in Literature," calls "Ulalume" "a carapace of jewelled sound," implying it lacks substance. Aldous Leonard Huxley (26 July 1894 &ndash 22 November 1963 was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. A carapace is a dorsal section of an Exoskeleton or shell in a number of animal groups [22] Huxley uses the poem as an example of Poe's poetry being "too poetical," equivalent to wearing a diamond ring on every finger. [23] Poet Daniel Hoffman says the reader must "surrender his own will" to the "hypnotic spell" of the poem and its "meter of mechanical precision. Daniel Gerard Hoffman (born April 3 1923) is an American Poet, essayist and academic " "Reading 'Ulalume' is like making a meal of marzipan," he says. For the character in the animated internet cartoon see Homestar Runner. "There may be nourishment in it but the senses are deadened by the taste, and the aftertaste gives one a pain in the stomach. "[24]

The poem did, however, receive some praise. George Gilfillan remarked in the London Critic:

"These, to many, will appear only words; but what wondrous words! What a spell they wield! What a weird unity is in them! The instant they are uttered, a misty picture, with a tarn, dark as a murderer's eye, below, and the thin yellow leaves of October fluttering above, exponents of a misery which scorns the name of sorrow, is hung up in the chambers of your soul forever. George Gilfillan ( 30 January 1813 &ndash 13 August 1878) was a Scottish Author and Poet. "[25]

After Poe's death, Thomas Holley Chivers claimed "Ulalume" was plagiarized from one of his poems. See also Edgar Allan Poe The death of Edgar Allan Poe on October 7 1849 has remained mysterious the circumstances leading up to it are uncertain and the cause of death Thomas Holley Chivers (October 18 1807 – December 18 1858 was an American doctor-turned- poet from the state of Georgia. Plagiarism is the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work Chivers made several similar unfounded accusations against Poe. [26] Even so, he said the poem was "nector mixed with ambrosia. In ancient Greek mythology, ambrosia is sometimes the food sometimes the drink of the gods, often depicted as conferring ageless Immortality "[27] Another friend of Poe, Henry B. Hirst, suggested in the January 22, 1848, issue of the Saturday Courier that Poe had found the "leading idea" of the poem in a work by Thomas Buchanan Read. Events 565 - Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus. Year 1848 ( MDCCCXLVIII) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap Thomas Buchanan Read ( March 12, 1822 &ndash May 11, 1872) was an American poet and Portrait painter born in Chester [28]

In other media

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel This Side of Paradise, the protagonist Amory Blaine recites "Ulalume" while wandering through the countryside. Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24 1896 – December 21 1940 was an American writer of Novels and Short stories, whose works are evocative of the This Side of Paradise is the debut Novel of F Scott Fitzgerald. The Protagonist or main character is the central figure of a story. Another character, Eleanor Savage, calls Blaine "the auburn-haired boy who likes 'Ulalume. '" When the two are caught in a thunderstorm, Savage volunteers to play the role of Psyche while Blaine recites the poem. [29] In H. P. Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness, a character refers to the poem. Howard Phillips Lovecraft ( August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American author of horror, fantasy A novella is a written, Fictional Prose Narrative longer than a Novelette but shorter than a Novel. At the Mountains of Madness is a Novella by horror writer H P While looking at a mountain, a character suggests "this mountain, discovered in 1840, had undoubtedly been the source of Poe’s image when he wrote seven years later," followed by a few lines of "Ulalume. " Roger Zelazny's 1993 novel, A Night in the Lonesome October, gets it title from this poem, though the book seems to draw little else from Poe. Roger Joseph Zelazny ( May 13, 1937 – June 14, 1995) was an American writer of Fantasy and Science fiction A Night in the Lonesome October is a novel by Roger Zelazny published in 1993 near the end of his life In the Tennessee Williams play A Streetcar Named Desire the character Blanche DuBois likens the residence of her sister Stella to the "ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir," a reference to "Ulalume". Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26 1911 &ndash February 25 1983 better known as Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright who received many of the top theatrical A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize Blanche DuBois (b September 15, 1919) is a fictional character in Tennessee Williams ' play A Streetcar Named Desire. Stella Kowalski (née DuBois is one of the main characters in Tennessee Williams ' play A Streetcar Named Desire. In Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Humbert Humbert (James Mason) reads a fragment of the poem to Lolita (Sue Lyon). Lolita is an influential 1962 film by Stanley Kubrick based on the classic novel of the same title by Vladimir Nabokov. James Neville Mason ( 15 May 1909 – 27 July 1984) was a three-time Academy Award -nominated British Actor who Sue Lyon (born July 10, 1946 in Davenport Iowa) is a Golden Globe -winning American former actress. In his history of the Union Army, "This Hallowed Ground", Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Bruce Catton places the American Civil War Battle of Chickamauga as occuring in a dark and frightening place evocative of Poe's "ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir". Bruce Catton ( October 9, 1899 &mdash August 28, 1978) was a journalist and a notable Historian of the American Civil War Initial movements in the Chickamauga Campaign In his successful Tullahoma Campaign in the summer of 1863 Rosecrans moved southeast from Murfreesboro Tennessee

References

  1. ^ a b Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Poe, 'Ligeia,' and the Problem of Dying Women" collected in New Essays on Poe's Major Tales, edited by Kenneth Silverman. Cambridge University Press, 1993. p. 116. ISBN 0521422434
  2. ^ Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Poe, 'Ligeia,' and the Problem of Dying Women" collected in New Essays on Poe's Major Tales, edited by Kenneth Silverman. Cambridge University Press, 1993. p. 117. ISBN 0521422434
  3. ^ a b Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992. p. 336 ISBN 0050923318
  4. ^ Jannaccone, Pasquale (translated by Peter Mitilineos). "The Aesthetics of Edgar Poe," collected in Poe Studies, vol. VII, no. 1, June 1974. p. 7
  5. ^ Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition" (1846). " The Philosophy of Composition " is an Essay written by Edgar Allan Poe that elucidates a theory about how good writers write when they write well
  6. ^ Weekes, Karen. "Poe's feminine ideal," collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 149. ISBN 0521797276
  7. ^ Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'," as collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 200. ISBN 0521797276
  8. ^ Kagle, Steven E. "The Corpse Within Us," as collected in Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu, Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV, ed. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1990. p. 110. ISBN 0961644923
  9. ^ Kagle, Steven E. "The Corpse Within Us," as collected in Poe and His Times: The Artist and His Milieu, Benjamin Franklin Fisher IV, ed. Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1990. p. 110. ISBN 0961644923
  10. ^ Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'," collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. p. 197-8 ISBN 0521797276
  11. ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992. ISBN 0815410387 p. 211
  12. ^ Robinson, David. "'Ulalume' - The Ghouls and the Critics," collected in Poe Studies. Volume VIII, Number 1 (June 1975). p. 9.
  13. ^ Meyers, Jeffrey. Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1992. p. 211 ISBN 0815410387
  14. ^ Wolosky, Shira. Poetry and Public Discourse 1820 - 1910 collected in The Cambridge History of American Literature Vol. 4, ed. Sacvan Bercovitch, p. 260, Online version of the book (ret: 15 April 2008)
  15. ^ Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, California: William Kaufmann, Inc. , 1981: 185. ISBN 086576008X
  16. ^ Silverman, Kenneth. Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Never-ending Remembrance. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. ISBN 0060923318 p. 335
  17. ^ Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'," collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521797276 p. 198
  18. ^ The Essays, Sketches & Lectures of Edgar Allan Poe, from the Poe Society online
  19. ^ Thomas, Dwight & David K. Jackson. The Poe Log: A Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809–1849. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. , 1987: 792. ISBN 0816187347.
  20. ^ Robinson, David. "'Ulalume' - The Ghouls and the Critics," collected in Poe Studies. Volume VIII, Number 1 (June 1975). p. 8.
  21. ^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 630. ISBN 0801857309
  22. ^ Kopley, Richard and Kevin J. Hayes. "Two verse masterworks: 'The Raven' and 'Ulalume'," collected in The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by Kevin J. Hayes. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. ISBN 0521797276 p. 197
  23. ^ Huxley, Aldous. "Vulgarity in Literature," collected in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, Robert Regan, editor. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc. , 1967. p. 32
  24. ^ Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. ISBN 0807123218 p. 69
  25. ^ Phillips, Mary E. Edgar Allan Poe: The Man. Volume II. Chicago: The John C. Winston Co. , 1926: 1248.
  26. ^ Moss, Sidney P. Poe's Literary Battles: The Critic in the Context of His Milieu. Southern Illinois University Press, 1969. p. 101
  27. ^ Chivers, Thomas Holley. Chivers' Life of Poe, edited by Richard Beale Davis. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co. , Inc. , 1952. p. 78.
  28. ^ Campbell, Killis. "The Origins of Poe", The Mind of Poe and Other Studies. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc. , 1962: 147.
  29. ^ Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. James L. W. West III, editor. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995. pp. 206-9

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