American literature is very important for the education of people as it reveals the culture and history of the United States. Moreover, American literature studying in other countries gives foreigners the opportunity to get to know American culture, history, and great works of the great authors better. Without the authors there's no American Literature.
One of the American authors is EDGAR ALLAN POE.
WHO IS EDGAR ALLAN POE?
-Edgar Allan Poe was one of the most important and influential American writers of the 19th century. He was the first author to try to make a professional living as a writer.
-January 19, 1809, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.—died October 7, 1849, Baltimore, Maryland)
-was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and of American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. He is also generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction
-Second child of David and Elizabeth “Eliza Poe”
-Poe was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond, Virginia. They never formally adopted him, but he was with them well into young adulthood.
-Poe and his works influenced literature around the world, as well as specialized fields such as cosmology and cryptography. He and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television
When it comes to Poet, his poetry alone would ensure his spot in the literary canon. Poe's notable verses range from the early masterpiece “to Helen” to the dark, mysterious “Ulalume.” from “the raven,” which made him world-famous upon its publication in 1845, to “Annabel lee,” the posthumously published eulogy for a maiden “in a kingdom by the sea.”
He is also a Master Of Macabre. Most famously, Poe completely transformed the genre of the horror story with his masterful tales of psychological depth and insight not envisioned in the genre before his time and scarcely seen in it since.
A Pioneer of science fiction, he was an early pioneer in the genre of science fiction. Poe was fascinated by the science of his time, and he often wrote stories about new inventions.
A Father of the detective story. Poe is credited with inventing the modern detective story with “the murders in the rue morgue.” His concept of deductive reasoning, which he called "ratiocination" inspired countless authors, most famous among them sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.
HE MARRIED HIS 13-YEAR-OLD COUSIN.
In 1829, Poe met seven-year-old Virginia Clemm, his first cousin on his mother's side. After living with the child's family for nearly six years, Poe asked her mother for permission to marry the young girl, promising to financially support her and her desperately poor family. She agreed, and the 27-year-old wed the 13-year-old the following year. They remained married until Clemm died from tuberculosis 11 years later.
THE CAUSE OF HIS DEATH IS STILL UNKNOWN.
•Clemm's illness had a profound effect on Poe. As she grew sicker, he began abusing alcohol.
While it was during this time that The Raven made him a household name, he was unable to enjoy and handle his newfound fame—a fact made worse by Clemm's passing just two years after the poem's publication.
•Poe's mental state gradually deteriorated. In 1849, a man found him incoherent and half-consciously wandering the streets of Baltimore. Curiously, he appeared to be wearing another person's clothing, and he kept calling out the name “Reynolds.” While the delirious 40-year-old was quickly taken to the hospital, he died the following morning.
HE IS CELEBRATED AS THE FIRST PROFESSIONAL AMERICAN WRITER, for his distinctive writing style and pioneering approach to poetry and short stories. Though he lived and worked in the United States, his oeuvre is well-known throughout the world. Of course, Poe is also popular in the United States.
Edgar Allan Poe made this poem entitled To My Mother.
TO MY MOTHER
Edgar Allan Poe
Lines 1-4
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother,”
•In the first stanza of ‘To My Mother’ the speaker makes his feelings clear about the word “mother”. He finds it to be of the utmost importance. So clear and “devotional” that it could not have been coined by any force less than the “angels”.
•The speaker can “feel” and imagine a scenario in which all of the angels are gathered around “whispering.” They are discussing the words of love and are unable to come up with anything more “burning [or]… devotional” as the word “Mother.”
Lines 5-8
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia’s spirit free.
•At the start of this quatrain, the speaker turns to address someone else. Its a woman who he has called “mother” for as long as he has known her. This “mother” figure is not solely a mother to him, but the one who filled his “heart of hearts.” The mother he is speaking about is not his own, but the mother of his cousin, and young wife, Virginia.
•He loves her by her own right but is even more devoted to her for the fact that she gave him his true love. It was by her hand that “Virginia’s spirit” was set free. In Poe’s mind, mothers have the ability to foster love within one’s own heart, but also outside. It is from Virginia’s mother that she was made, and therefore from her that Poe received the greatest love of his life.
Lines 9-14
My mother—my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
In the last six lines of ‘To My Mother’ the speaker describes the emotions he has for his own biological mother and how those emotions work in tandem with those he has for Virginia’s mother. Poe’s parents died when he was very young and grew up in foster care. It makes sense that he would be seeking out a mother figure somewhere in his life, it was a relationship that he was lacking. In the second line of this section, Poe refers to his mother as nothing more than “the mother of myself.” She was the one who gave birth to him, but Virginia’s mother is much more important. She is the “mother to the one I loved so dearly.”
This poem was written by Edgar Allan Poe, a great American writer and editor. ‘To My Mother’ is one of the famous poems about a mother’s love. It was first published on the 7th of July in 1849. The poem exhibits the heartfelt emotions of the poet for his biological mother, mother in law and his wife. It also illustrates how he connects this sacred relationship with divinity. It is also common for a man to look for his mother’s quality in his life partner.
Also in American Literature we have ROBERT FROST.
Robert Lee Frost (born March 26, 1874, San Francisco, California, U.S.—died January 29, 1963, Boston, Massachusetts), American poet who was much admired for his depictions of the rural life of New England, his command of American colloquial speech, and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people in everyday situations. Robert Frost’s life was marred by a series of tragedies. First, the early demise of his father, later the deaths of his children, and then the loss in business. However, all these hindrances could not destroy his writing talent. He graduated from Lawrence High School as a poet but could not polish his poetic abilities due to the unfavorable luck. His first poem, “My Butterfly: An Elegy” was published in 1894. Various poets such as Robert Graves, Edward Thomas, and Robert Brooke used to meet him and encourage him to write poetry. During his visit to England, he became friends with Ezra Pound, who later helped him in his publications. He published “A Boy’s Will” in 1913. Later, in 1916, in his book “Mountain Interval” he presented a perfect combination of narratives and lyrics in his poetry. “Selected Poems” and “New Hampshire” hit the shelves in 1923. He became so much popular with his simplicity in poetry that it earned him four Pulitzer Prizes. Besides poetry, he produced the updated version of Biblical story, A Masque of Mercy, in 1947. Furthermore, he was the first poet honored to recite a poem at the Presidential Inauguration of John F. Kennedy.
Robert Frost also added more colors to the world of literature. Despite having a traumatic life, he secured a reputable place as a literary man with his creative and thoughtful ideas. The early demise of his father and his children provided him with an insight to feel the intense pain of loss and express it in simple and ordinary language. He documented these ideas in his poems and plays so well, such as “After Apple-Picking”, “Mending Wall” and “Out- Out” have become household names on account of their deceptively innocent themes. Moreover, his ideas about social outcasts and love for nature are reflected well in his works. The recurring themes in most of his poems are love, death, beauty, man and the natural world, and struggle. Robert Frost used literary devices that turned to visual and sensual imagery, metaphors, similes, and symbolism to create a unique style.
Robert Frost’s Works
Best Poems: His popular poems include: “After Apple-Picking”, “Mending Wall”, “Birches”, “Out-Out”, “Fire and Ice”, Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”
Best Plays and Prose Books: His famous books and plays include: “A Way Out: A One-Act Play“, “A Masque of Reason “, “A Masque of Mercy”, “The Notebooks of Robert Frost, edited by Robert Faggen”, “Selected Letters of Robert Frost.”
Written in 1915 in England, he wrote his poem entitled "The Road Not Taken" it is one of Robert Frost's—and the world's—most well-known poems. Although commonly interpreted as a celebration of rugged individualism, the poem actually contains multiple different meanings. The speaker in the poem, faced with a choice between two roads, takes the road "less traveled," a decision which he or she supposes "made all the difference." However, Frost creates enough subtle ambiguity in the poem that it's unclear whether the speaker's judgment should be taken at face value, and therefore, whether the poem is about the speaker making a simple but impactful choice, or about how the speaker interprets a choice whose impact is unclear.
Now, let's read his poem entitled The Road Not Taken.
I
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth;
II
Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
III
And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.
IV
I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
SUMMARY
The speaker, walking through a forest whose leaves have turned yellow in autumn, comes to a fork in the road. The speaker, regretting that he or she is unable to travel by both roads (since he or she is, after all, just one person), stands at the fork in the road for a long time and tries to see where one of the paths leads. However, the speaker can't see very far because the forest is dense and the road is not straight. The speaker takes the other path, judging it to be just as good a choice as the first, and supposing that it may even be the better option of the two, since it is grassy and looks less worn than the other path. Though, now that the speaker has actually walked on the second road, he or she thinks that in reality the two roads must have been more or less equally worn-in. Reinforcing this statement, the speaker recalls that both roads were covered in leaves, which had not yet been turned black by foot traffic. The speaker exclaims that he or she is in fact just saving the first road, and will travel it at a later date, but then immediately contradicts him or herself with the acknowledgement that, in life, one road tends to lead onward to another, so it's therefore unlikely that he or she will ever actually get a chance to return to that first road. The speaker imagines him or herself in the distant future, recounting, with a sigh, the story of making the choice of which road to take. Speaking as though looking back on his or her life from the future, the speaker states that he or she was faced with a choice between two roads and chose to take the road that was less traveled, and the consequences of that decision have made all the difference in his or her life.
END!!!
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