During class today a couple of you shared your first encounter with Poe. I particularly liked Audrey's recollection of her interest in Tamerlane and Other Poems at age two. I thought it might be useful for all of us to share our first Poe stories.
As for myself, I can't recall whether or not I came to Poe through a t.v. adaptation or through a collection of his stories first. I think it was probably a t.v. adaptation, though. Back in the late 70s, one of the networks used to run children's adaptations of classic literature right after the last of the Saturday morning cartoons. It was something you watched when cartoons were over and you still wanted to watch t.v. The adaptation was of "The Gold-Bug" and my only strong memory is of the scene where the bug is suspended like a pendulum from a tree branch. On the whole, I think it struck me as something "good for me" or "education" as opposed to the entertainment (cartoons) which had preceded it.
The first Poe story I actually read was "The Pit and the Pendulum." At some point in my childhood my grandfather gave me a big volume of Poe tales for Christmas. I actually remember being a bit disappointed at the time -- I don't think I was quite the reader yet that I would turn out to be, and it was a big book with no pictures (I must have been young enough that this was newish to me?). Actually, as I type this I recall that it wasn't "The Pit and the Pendulum" but "MS Found in a Bottle" that was the first story I read in the collection, followed by "Pit." MS baffled me and I think I read "The Pit and the Pendulum" as a sort of last chance for Poe. As young, plot-driven reader, much of the story was lost on me. Why was he in the pit? Why were these things happening to him (the context of the inquisition, obviously, was lost on me). Following those two stories I never picked up the book again (I still own it, though). I wasn't exposed to Poe in print (not counting the Vincent Price movies) again until the typical highschool package of "Cask" and "Tell-Tale."
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I don't exactly remember how old I was when I was introduced to Poe, however it was in middle school times. We were working a poetry unit that lasted almost an entire six weeks of school and the teacher used Poe's "Annabel Lee," and "The Raven" to teach us elements of poetry. I suppose I liked these poems when we went over them because they were so easy going and simple. Little did I know that they were more complex than I thought they were. After that first meeting with his work I always looked forward to any class that included his other works in the syllabus. I had much more scholarly work with him in ENGL 301, I think it was, with Prof. Frankel. We read several short stories of which I cannot choose a favorite! I had told my brother, a VCU alumni, that I was taking a senior seminar about Poe and with his interest in Poe, he was more excited about it than me. He told me to take detailed notes so that he could compare our talks about Poe's work to what he was thinking as he read it. He also bought me a1980's illustrated book of Poe works that I will try to bring to class sometime. I am looking forward to building my friendship with Poe even more this semester.
I was first introduced to Poe in elementary school when I read a book called "The Man Who Was Poe" written by Avi. It is the author's take on what would happen if a young boy befriended Poe. I don't remember much about the book except for that a lot of it took place at night, and it had an overall creepy setting. Here is a link where you can view the cover, and read more about the book:
www.avi-writer.com/man_who_was_poe
Like others, I was introduced directly to Poe's work around middle school. We read "The Tell-Tale Heart" in my 8th grade english class out loud, and I think we may have done some sort of theatrical interpretation. In high-school, I was first introduced to Poe's "The Cast of Amontillado." My teacher read the story to us, which made it even better. My early exposure to Poe made his works seem enjoyable to read, and I look forward to learning more about Poe, and reading more of his work.
Looks like The Man Who Was Poe was/is pretty popular young adult literature. This guy, however, really, really takes exception to the novel's depiction of Poe.
As I said in class, the little blue book with the gold-rimmed pages was always there. In the bookcase, just out of reach. I do not actually remember reading out of it until I was much older. Like everyone else, I saw the Vincent Price version of “The Pit and the Pendulum” (did you all know Vincent Price is from Virginia?) and read several of the short stories in school, and while I loved them, all- it is Poe’s poetry that has always captured my attention. It’s his obvious love of words. A few things stand out, one was a field trip in the fifth grade - we went to Fairmont Park in Philadelphia, to the house in which Poe wrote The Raven. There is a room in that house which is very similar to the raven room at our Poe museum here in Richmond, but the one there is spookier. It’s easy for a child to picture Poe hard at work writing the masterpiece. I also remember having to memorize Annabel Lee in the seventh grade. I remember looking up the word dissever in the dictionary and not finding it. However, It was reading The Haunted Palace, for first time that I remember best. It was on my own; a summer in which I had determined to read the complete works of Poe. I was in my teens, the summer after ninth grade. That was also the year I started writing my own poetry and short stories.
Posted for Michelle Anderson (changed from a new post to a comment in this post).
I'm not entirely sure what attracts me to Poe except I believe that I am attracted to the aspect of horror that Poe often combines with the gothic. I love the blending of the two genres. I was first introduced to Poe's writings in middle school, as were most, but throughout the years I have collected many of his books and complete works. Coming to Richmond for college I was really excited to visit the Poe museum, which I continue to visit frequently. I believe that Poe is a great man of his time. He seems different somehow, more personable perhaps, than other great writers of the 19th century; which seems to allows me to feel connected to him on a more personal level. I am looking forward to learning more about Poe's history and life, as well as his literature.
My first recollection of Poe was in ninth grade--when we read "Cask..." I didn't get it and didn't like it at the time, but I recall reading "The Raven" and loving it. I don't remember if that was before or after "Cask" though. And then, for a Drama class I was taking my senior year in high school, I was given some lines from "The Tell-Tale Heart" which I loved. I dabbled in Poe for a while, but it wasn't until after I went to the Poe museum about two years ago I really wanted to get to know him better, and read more of his works. It was around this time I became interested in his story, "The Masque of the Red Death."
I have already learned a lot about Poe from reading the articles, and I, as Hannibal Lecter once said, "want to see him living..." What I mean is that I hope, through a new insight into Poe, I can read his works with a new eye and see the living as well as the death in them.
When I was in the sixth grade, we read "The Raven". We were learning about poetry and I really enjoyed the poem. I remember walking around the house saying "never more", until my mother banished the word for a year. I went on to read the "Cask..." as well as the "Tell-Tale Heart". I really don't know Edgar Allan Poe or his "reputation". I think it will be interesting to learn about him this semester without having to prove or disprove any former knowledge of him or his reputation. However, I am now really curious about him.
My parents are from Russia, of Jewish decent, so I've been brought up around literature since before I could talk or probably see straight.
So I can't remember when I first heard Poe. I've always liked the Raven. I wish you all could read a Russian translation of it, it is beautiful.
I remember that I could recite the first several stanza's when I was younger, I think up until "so that now to still the beating of my heart I stood repeating tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door only this and nothing more").
I personally am most obsessed with Poe's language, he is clearly talented, crazy maybe...
One thing I hope to experience out of this class is some kind of concentration on Poe's skill with words, his manipulation of language, that I always admired about him was the way he makes words work for him.
This post is a little bit over due but I figured I would share my "Poe Story" rather than sit through the many mindless calculus and chemistry problems I have been assigned for homework but also because I figured at least someone in class would find it worth the read so here we go.
In the sixth grade I took a drama course--mainly because I wanted to take woodshop and in order to do so I had to suffer through a term of drama. Right, moving along--our drama teacher decided that our class would turn "The Raven" into a play--still not sure how we pulled it off but somehow we little tweenies managed to put on a decent performace of what was to me, at least at that time, probably the strangest poem I had ever read.
Later on in my little middleschool life, I was assigned "The Raven" along with "The Tell Tale Heart" to read for my english course. I was excited simply because I felt I already had some knowledge of the poem as I had help to turn it into a play. As far as "The Tell Tale Heart" I was again excited as my mother had expressed her love for that particular piece of Poe's work. We read the works, I was slightly confused as usual by the raven and fully creeped out by the tell tale heart but at the same time, I enjoyed it. I was proud of myself that at that young age I was able to analyse what was going on in the story and recieved an A for our graded writing assignment shortly there after. So I'll admit this: I don't know much about poe other than what I have read, which is minimal, but I am definitely excited to continue to broaded my knowledge of this writer. Right--so, that took far less time than I had hoped--back to the toture of Calc and Chem.
Hey, I know this is reaching you a little late but I wanted to chime in on my Poe experience. One cool thing about Poe and me is that last semester I did my first secondary practicum at a middle school in Hanover. At the end of the semester I was required to teach my own lesson and I bet you all will never guess what it was about...ok so maybe you can. POE!!! I taught THE RAVEN and had the kids re-write the poem into modern-day language. Another interesting thing we did was listen to it being read by Christopher Walken. Again, I know this is a little late but you know what they say...or do you??
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