200th Anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe Sparks Conversations on Campus - Georgetown College

By Gabrielle Matthews

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, an American writer who defined the macabre for 19th-century poetry and prose. Most famous for his short stories like “The Pit and the Pendulum” and the poem “The Raven,” Poe is still influential today as evidenced by his cross-genre appeal. Even the television show “The Simpsons” has made many references to the writer and his work, including an episode that performs “The Raven” almost in its entirety (and even credits Poe as a co-writer for the episode) and another that re-tells “The Tell-Tale Heart” as part of a elementary school diorama project.

Poe transcends genres: He was a literary critic, a journalist, a writer of short stories and a poet. As an artist of such breadth, his work lends itself well to adaptation. “Poe was an accomplished painter, and certainly his stories have stunning visual scenes,” said award-winning poet and Georgetown professor of English David Gewanter. “But he also gave us a musical poetry not based solely on the phrase, but also keeping to the metronome.  While later American poets rebelled against the metronome beat, composers might delight in it.”

In honor of Poe’s 200th birthday, in October the Department of Performing Arts hosted a performance of musical adaptations of Poe’s poems. The music was composed by New York-based Damon Ferrante, who also composed the music for an opera named “Jefferson & Poe: A Lyric Opera in Two Acts,” a story of a fictional relationship between U.S. president Thomas Jefferson and Edgar Allan Poe. The opera’s libretto is by poet, biographer and Washington, DC native Daniel Mark Epstein. Ferrante and Epstein worked together again on “The Edgar Allan Poe Project,” sections of which were performed at Georgetown.

“Part of our project is to directly play music and have poetry readings, but also set context and give insight into the creative process,” said Ferrante.

Punctuated by readings of Poe’s poetry and original poems by Epstein, the performers talked about their inspiration and Poe’s life and work. It was this intrinsic connection between Poe’s literature and music that encouraged Professor Anna Celenza—Chair of the Department of Performing Arts and director of the music program—to arrange for the performance as part of the Friday Music Concert Series. Celenza noted that Poe’s correspondence proves his interest and excitement with music: he was purportedly an accomplished singer and flute player. Celenza feels that his background in music translates into his writing.

“Composers and songwriters continue to be drawn to Poe's writings—both his poetry and horror stories—generation after generation.  His popularity never seems to have waned,” said Celenza. “Classical composers like Claude Debussy and Sergei Rachmaninoff turned his tales and poetry into operas and choral symphonies over a hundred years ago. Philip Glass wrote an opera based on ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ in 1989…Even Brittany Spears has gotten into the act. She sang versions of Poe's poetry during her 2002 ‘Dream Within a Dream’ tour. Undoubtedly, though, it's the Goth bands and Heavy Metal groups who have referenced Poe the most regularly. Marilyn Manson and Iron Maiden, for example. It's not the poetry so much as the dark, haunting mood of Poe's horror tales that attracts these musicians.”

As a musician, professor, and writer Celenza knows how powerful mood and the combination of poetics and music can be. Poe’s work may be in many instances deeply disturbing, but it also speaks to readers in a profound way.

“Each and every one of his works—be it a poem or a tale—is an example of great storytelling,” said Celenza. “Poe knew how to communicate; he knew how to tap into his readers' deepest fears and emotions.  His poetry especially offers a pleasurable sense of melancholy that can comfort us when we're feeling stressed or adrift in life.”

Joseph Fruscione, lecturer in the Department of English, knows how important an understanding of Poe is to comprehensive knowledge of the American literary canon, but is concerned that the students in his class see more of Poe than just the gore and chilling tales of death. Poe’s story “The Gold-Bug,” which Fruscione assigns to the students in his Writing, Race, and Nation: In and Around the American Renaissance class, “manipulates the reader.” Students get the sense that something bad is going to happen, but nothing ever does. “Students are frustrated. Where’s the death?” Fruscione laughs. Instead of immediately assigning dark texts that students expect or may have read in high school, stories like “The Cask of Amontillado” or “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Fruscione introduces students to another side of Poe.

The first two texts Frucsione teaches are what he calls “atypical” of the writer: the afore mentioned “The Gold-Bug” and Poe’s only novel “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket” which is about a sea voyage. Fruscione teaches this text because he knows it is ideal for a gateway English class that introduces students to important themes in scholarship. “It works well with issues of race and nationhood. There are echoes of slavery and colonialism, and some people think it’s racist—it has a lot in common with ‘Moby Dick’,” Fruscione adds. “The novel was first presented as non-fiction, but sometimes his facts are wrong.  It manipulates the audience. The students really like it, but sometimes they feel tricked.”

Once students have an understanding of the breadth of Poe’s work, Fruscione assigns a few of the “signature” macabre Poe texts: “Ligeia” which is much like “The Raven” in its themes of brooding on the death of a beautiful woman; “The Masque of the Red Death,” a disturbing short story about a plague and its resulting carnage; and “The Fall of the House of Usher” which centers on live burial and mental illness. “These texts tend to be more what they expect,” Fruscione notes.

Fruscione likens Poe to F. Scott Fitzgerald in the way that his personal biography often informs readings of his poems, short stories, and other texts. “It’s almost as much about his persona as it is about his work—balancing an image against a text,” said Fruscione.  Poe is often a figure of pity and horror for his biography: the death of his parents, the early demise of his young wife, Virginia Clemm, and his brilliant but short and difficult literary career. Poe tragically died around the age of 40, but produced an impressive volume of work. “There’s something very accessible about Poe, and a lot beneath the surface,” said Fruscione. “Poe is still very much in the public conversation.”