American Literature: The Poe Must Go On: Part II

focus here is Poe's classic poem Ulalume it's fun to say but that's about [Ulalume book appears]

the only fun thing about it his typical Poe, death, dreariness, tombstone spirits a

shout out to hell hey hell, how you doing there.... so get ready for [Barbara Streisand appears near hot lava]

me to rain all over your good mood if you were in one before we dig in...

let's look at its backstory wait different backstory first of all..Poe

totally made up the name Ulalume - but you can pronounce that

however you like...

the gist in a nutshell there's a dead woman who is loved by the poems speaker [Flies buzzing around a dead woman]

no shocker there we see the same theme of unrequited love in many of his other

poems including the Raven, Annabel Lee and Ligeia, death of loved ones you

know the guy wrote what he knew but Ululume was published in 1847 in a

magazine called the American review originally the title was To Ulalume, a

ballad it was shortened to Ulalume thankfully much better creepier more

mysterious the poems barely over a hundred lines long but it packs in

ghouls and goddess, erupting volcanoes, spooky woods, Heaven

Hell...Sadly, Santa fails to make an appearance [Santa holding up sign for food]

so okay where did the poem come from

Did Poe just dream it one night and then scribble it into his notepad the second

he woke up there is actually a story behind it people there was a minister

this guy Reverend Cotesworth P. Bronson killer

name sounds like a beat cop who won't take no for an answer well he taught

public speaking gave lectures at colleges you know that sort of thing [Reverend Cotesworth giving a lecture]

he met Poe a couple of times but a visit to the author in 1847 convinced him

that something was up.. Poe was thin and gaunt looks continually nervous and just

seemed off weird guy well the Reverend thinking he might be able to help

suggested that Poe write something that could be read aloud ie not 300 pages

Melville never got that memo and something that would demonstrate variety

of voice and expression well he figured that having something read allowed for [Poe on stage and tomatoes and rubber chickens thrown at him]

a rapt audience might boost Poe's self-confidence plus he gets paid for the

work, Poe was pretty much always broke so little money would be nice well Poe's

took the idea and ran with it he crafted a poem that presented varying emotions

you know emotions like happiness, sadness, surprise and constipation and Poe's

inspiration came from a trip to a cemetery normal people take trips to [A vineyard and theme park ride]

vineyards or theme parks but this guy took holidays with dead people different

strokes for different folks right anyway there was a tomb of a guy named Thomas Guion

that had a couple of rows of pine trees leading up to it [Guion's tomb surrounded by pine trees]

Poe thought that was a sweet setting for a poem so he borrowed it well the

plot of his poem was borrowed too don't worry he'll give it back Poe

borrowed one key famous image from a story called the summons answered

written by his friend Elizabeth Oaks Smith and it featured a beckoning white

hand that emerged from a partially open tomb, tell me that doesn't have Poe [Skeleton hand appears from Poe's grave]

written all over it so he had his setting and a theme and a jumping-off

point for his plot, Ululume was born when it was done Poe had it published in

the American Review anonymously guess it aided him that he wasn't

getting the credit because he later had it published in the Providence

Journal and this time stuck his name on it [Edgar Poe's name circled on Providence Journal]

not the anonymous had been fooling anyone, Poe had literary

fingerprints with his McCobb style that were too obvious like a Tarantino film

you know same gist anyway....So what's the plot of Ululume, well what's

the story and how does it unfold hmm well Poe starts by setting the mood.. [Poe eating eyeballs with a bottle of red wine]

the mood is not romantic candlelit dinner on the beach we've got our ashen

skies our withering leaves, our dim lake ...As expected

it's dark and damp and generally foreboding our nameless speaker is near [Poe between a lake and ghoul haunted woodland]

Lake in a ghoul haunted woodland not sure what he's doing there you'd think

you would want to steer clear of ghoul haunted woodlands... sometimes it's

not worth taking the shortcuts... We're introduced to

the speaker's soul whose name is Psyche, yeah he named his soul when you don't

have friends or any pets well you know you have to improvise there...

the speaker compares his heart to an erupting volcano yep Indonesian food was [Volcano about to erupt]

new to America in those days okay so as the speaker and his soul are

trapsing through the woods our narrator mentions they have no idea what month

it is or even where they are, guess his iPhone doesn't have service....

suddenly our speaker sees the morning star so at least he has someone you have [Psyche looks up at morning star[

what time of day it is he's happy to see it, but Psyche aint so sure she mistrusts the

star thinks it's a bad omen as the two had their little disagreement they

stumble upon a tomb written on the door of the tomb is the name [Poe and psyche stood by ulalume's tomb]

Ulalume yes Ulalume tomb well this triggers something in our speaker's

brain he remembers his love Ulalume died and was buried in these woods last

october on this very night you'd think a person would remember something like [Person flicking through calendar on phone]

that but if it's not in your google calendar you know and that's about it

the speaker curses the woodland ghouls or whatever demon was responsible for

projecting that eerie glow of the morning star leading him to the site of [Poe fighting off demons and ghouls]

such painful memories sure blame it on the star so that's the story a guy in

the soul are walking through the woods they see a star, sent to the tomb of

the guy's wife who died a year ago... okay it's read and analyze time we're

going to read this bad boy four times well you're going to read it four times...

and we're going to look for something different each time sounds fun yeah okay [Magnifying glass inspecting different]

all right reading numero uno once you're finished you're going to paraphrase the

poems event in your own words so for now just pay attention to the story and go...

We've already put

put the poem in our words now it's your turn look for passengers or phrases that seem [Passages making their way through a maze]

a bit confusing and take your best guess at what the speaker is trying to say

like at the end of our path a liquescent questions and nebulous lustre was born you might

not know what liquescent means and maybe you don't know nebulous either but

what's a lustre it's a one who lusts... If something has

lustre it's bright and shiny and nebulous sounds like nebulae which is a [A nebula in space]

cloud of dust and gas in space or maybe nebulous means cloudy or hazy... hazy

brightness has appeared at the end of our speakers path well once you're

finished putting the poem in your own words it's time for a second reading [Boy looks shocked]

huzzah all right this time look for connotation ie words or phrases

that have secondary meanings as well as their usual meaning.....

home connotes somewhere comfortable and familiar and

someone saying I'd love to go out with you but I'm shampooing my hair Saturday [Cheerleader turning down man for a date]

night connotes I'm not interested yeah I know that come back well....well look for

figurative language the use of metaphors or similes that poetically compare one

thing to something else often a physical object to something

more abstract imagery, descriptive language that paints

clear visual picture and think about sounds words that evoke noises in our

mind hisses smacks pops whizzes anything in that department

okay pause and reader again let's start with connotation again we're looking for

words or phrases with secondary meanings well the poem starts when the [Poem sentences highlighted]

description of the skies as ashen and sober so we've got a physical

description of what the sky looks like probably grayish and calm but there's

also the connotation of those words that implies there's a dark and dismal mood [A grey, darkened sky]

otherwise he'd just say the sky is you know grayish and calm... instead Poe uses

the visual image of ash which brings to mind bits of dark matter falling sadly [Sad faces falling from the sky]

to the ground and the idea of them being sober which can describe the attitude of

someone who isn't feeling particularly joyous later in the poem the speaker

says that the tears are not dry on these cheeks could be that he's got wet tears all [Poe crying]

over his cheeks and is in dire need of a tissue but since we learned that his love

died a year ago he's probably reigned in a waterworks by now however

connotation is that even after a year he's still awfully sad about it.... well there's

other figurative language at play here as well like when the speaker says his

heart was volcanic we're assuming there isn't literal molten rock flowing from [Raven eating soup]

his chest cavity so this is a metaphor write that down....

he's just so overcome with emotion that it feels as if his heart is spewing lava

Near the tail end of the poem the speaker blames a demon

and the woodlandish ghouls for bringing him to the tomb of his beloved but is it

really a demon or ghoul who's to blame or could those just be metaphors for the

part of him that wanted to revisit the pain and agony of his loss there's some [Poe walks out of theatre]

powerful imagery here like in the lines down by the dank tarn of Auber in the

ghoul haunted woodland of weir and with love in her luminous eyes and letting

sink her plumes till they trailed in the dust till they sorrowfully trailed in

the dust now each of those lines could have been put more simply but Poe knew [Poe writing a poem]

there was beauty in the language itself dark depressing beauty but still...

finally there are sounds, the currents groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek

and it flickers up the sky through the night and the leaves that were crisp and

sere....can almost hear the groaning currents and the flickering lights and [Light flickering]

crispy leaves being crunched underfoot sort of put us right there in story all

right third read this time we're looking for tone yeah specifically what's the

speaker's attitude toward everything that's happening to him [Poe running away]

are there shifts in tone or perspective do we hear one opinion and then have it

contrasted with a different one yeah okay so tone we've got a couple elements

working here first there's the speaker's soul who's [Speakers soul appears]

treated like a separate character the two of them have different ideas and

take different tones, when it comes to that eerie hazy glow of the morning star

that appears to them the speaker sounds positive about it he says this is

nothing but dreaming maybe hinting he's in denial and insist they bathe in this

crystalline light he doesn't see anything nasty about it but his soul

psyche begs to differ she has more of a pessimistic tone

saying of the star her pallor I strangely mistrust and suggesting they

skedaddle but there's also a shift in tone when [Psyche and speaker appear at Ulalume tomb]

the speaker finds Ulalume's tomb and realizes that maybe that guiding light

wasn't so friendly after all suddenly its demon this and ghoul that you know

so much for that cheery disposition all right finally we're looking for themes

what overriding concepts or meanings show up in this poem

what does Poe want to impart what does he want us to take away from the piece [Hand takes away word]

other than the fact that he should never be hired as a motivational life coach [Young boy being interviewed]

Themes! what do we got here sadness sure that's a given the speaker

lost his love a year ago and it's so messed up about it that he's imagining

his soul as a separate person, maybe that makes it easier remember the tears are

not dry on these cheeks so Poe is trying to say something here about the

constancy of sadness, just because some time goes by doesn't mean the hurt will [clock strikes and cracks the wall]

necessarily heal there's also a theme of the supernatural there are mentions of

ghouls and goddesses and even the speaker

soul seems to be some supernatural entity existing outside the speaker's

body on the one hand these could just be figurative you know stuff generated in

the speaker's mind to help him deal with Ulalume's passing..Though Poe is also

establishing that there's a connection with the spiritual world so it could be

he's trying to say that when it comes to death not everything can be explained in [Poe and psyche using ouija board]

earthly or physical terms well another big theme and Poe more or less owns

this one is death itself without Ulalume's death there is no poem and

without death in general though there is no Poe... by being privy to all of his inner [Poe celebrating with party hats]

turmoil we get the sense that Poe thinks a lot about death a lot and then

he wants us to think about it too... I wish he could still be around to experience

his own absence after death I know him and I know he would have loved this soup....