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Since 1923, the Poe
Society
has sponsored an annual commemorative
lecture
on the life and/or works of Edgar Allan Poe, presented by a noted Poe
scholar.
This lecture is always held on the first Sunday in October,
more-or-less
coinciding with the anniversary of Poe's death. Prior to this event, it
is traditional for members of the Poe Society to gather at Poe's grave,
placing flowers on the monument in a brief and informal ceremony to
honor
Poe's memory.
These Poe Society events are free and open to the public.
Sunday, October
7,
2007:
1:15 p.m. - Tribute
to Poe
at the Poet's Grave
Location: Westminster
Burying
Ground, at the corner of Fayette and Greene Streets
(This is a very brief and informal ceremony. Anyone wishing to bring
flowers to be placed on Poe's grave is welcome to do so.)
2:00 p.m. - 85th
Commemorative Edgar Allan Poe Lecture
Location: The E. A. Poe Room of the Enoch
Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral, second floor
Welcome, and Introduction of the Speaker and Respondents
Address: “Obsessive (Poe)tics: Meter and Rhyme in E. A. Poe's
Poetry” by
Dr. Christopher Bundrick (University of Mississippi)
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Abstract of the lecture:
“Obsessive (Poe)tics: Meter and
Rhyme in E. A. Poe's Poetry”
For the last half century critics of Poe have too
often ignored his poetry altogether or written it off as jingly and
over-affected. To judge from the comments of these critics, the
overall sense of Poe's verse tends to be either that financial strain
forced him to rush both composition and publication, or that the
author's sensibilities were simply better fitted to the short story (a
form for which he continues to receive considerable attention). I
believe, however, that a close look at Poe's verse reveals work
of considerable depth and sophistication.
In his landmark work Poetic Meter Poetic Form
(1965), Paul Fussell attempts to at least partially recuperate Poe's
verse technique when he writes of "Annabel Lee": "[a]n excessively
'imposed' meter, although defective, becomes more interesting the
nearer the meter approaches something like appropriateness. Thus
the insufficiently varied, 'external' meter of Poe's 'Annabel Lee'
might be partially justified by the fictive speaker's rural
simplicity." Following the path Fussell's argument strikes, if we read
Poe's verse in the context of its fidelity to the author's "Philosophy
of Composition" we'll find an innovative technical approach to mood and
character. In particular, I want to emphasize Poe's use of meter
and rhyme to create a speaker who, as Fussell argues, would naturally
perform the scene the poem has set. Poe uses meter and rhyme to
highlight his speakers' obsessive characteristics and to examine the
ways that obsession alters their perceptions of the worlds they
inhabit. Combining this strong sense of character with moments of
technical brilliance, Poe manages to create a sophisticated and
intriguing poetic effect that bears considerably more scrutiny than it
is currently receiving.
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Response/Discussion and Questions from the audience.
3:00 p.m. - Reception
Location: The E. A. Poe Room of
the Enoch
Pratt Free Library, 400 Cathedral, second floor. Punch and cookies
will be available. This reception is co-sponsored by the Division of
English
and Communications Design of the University of Baltimore. |
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