interveiw
Edgar was invited to be a guest Poet on the "Poetry Punch" segment at a local radio station, here's how his interview went...
IRENE ADELA: Hello and welcome to the 4:30pm poetry punch. I’m you’re presenter as always, and forevermore, Irene Adela. Today is a very special day for all of us in the studio, as we are lucky enough to have a famous poet guest. At 205 years old - back from the grave - The master of Poe-try - Edgar Allan Poe!
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Hello, it is an honour to be here.
IRENE ADELA: It’s an honour to have you. Let’s get to the questions. For our listeners who don’t know, you were orphaned as a very young child; does this have anything to do with many of your poems and other literary works having such dark themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: No, not at all. The Allans, who took me in shortly after my mother had died, were the kindest hearted people you would ever meet. I always had an interest in the darker side of life, especially as a child at boarding school, simply writing about touchy subjects as death in such way that nobody else at the time had thought to.
IRENE ADELA: Very interesting. Now I read that your poem, “The Sleeper” was originally titled “Irene”. Who is this Irene?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Well I wrote “The Sleeper” at a time when I was rather grief stricken, as my wife had recently passed away. Irene is the goddess of peace, and I thought of my wife as a goddess in both temperament and beauty. I hoped she would rest in peace, so in the poem I was pleading to the goddess Irene to make that so.
IRENE ADELA: Oh, how sad. How did your career start?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: It actually started quite early in my life, when I was a child of some 12 years, I loved to write and showed great promise. Plus, the ladies loved it.
IRENE ADELA: Haha they sure do. I also noticed in “The Sleeper”, you tend to use quite a bit graphic imagery, like “soft may the worms about her creep”.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: As I said before, I have always been interested in the subject of death, but I don’t believe it was truly graphic, I was just trying to express my emotions at the time and feeling for my wife. She was the greatest thing on the earth to me and I just hoped death would treat her as well as I tried to treat her when she was still living with me. *sniffs*
IRENE ADELA: *hands Edgar tissue* Many of your poems are written to a strict rhythm. May I ask what your intensions of using such rhythms were?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: My poems are written in a rhythmic beat to capture the audience’s attention, after all, what is the point of writing if nobody reads your work or hears it read aloud? The voice is the most powerful aspect of life, perhaps even more powerful than death!
IRENE ADELA: So very insightful. Can you tell us what the main themes that you tried to include in “The sleeper” were?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Of course, to challenge death and thoughts on death, and that death can be beautiful and charming as well as ugly and fearful. When a person close to you dies it is tragic, and shocking. I also tried to explore how fragile life is.
IRENE ADELA: why those main themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Because these question are the simple questions that humanity cannot find an answer to, that everyone else is afraid to answer.
IRENE ADELA: I also see in “The Sleeper” the line “Irene with her destinies”. Why did you use the mythical allusion?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Irene, as I said, is a beautiful goddess, and I likened my dead wife to her. I did this to show my grief after losing her. And the “Destinies” were there to show that my wife’s death was out of my control.
IRENE ADELA: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Your poem the “Haunted Palace”… can you tell our listeners some of the main themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: The whole poem is an allegory for human life and eventual death.
IRENE ADELA: That’s incredible. You use a great amount of imagery in this poem for instance “... ghastly rapid river, though the pale door.”
EDGAR ALLAN POE: *pauses* I liked that poem.
IRENE ADELA: Oh yes and the question.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Rather boring. This poem as I said was an allegory for human life and eventual death, but that was the main theme, by using this piece of imagery I emphasised the idea that death and insanity were in par, so to speak. This poem was about this brave king “well benefitted” of sorts, having everything; money, happiness and power, and being at the mercy of insanity and death. I used this “ghastly rapid river” to show how powerless he was to becoming a tyrant and dying. I think, if I can remember correctly, I wrote it about myself.
IRENE ADELA: *laughs*
EDGAR ALLAN POE: It wasn’t a joke.
IRENE ADELA: okay. You also used a lot of metaphoric imagery in the poem, would you be able to give us an example?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: “wanders in that happy valley”?
IRENE ADELA: Yes.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: The metaphor, comparing a valley to the mind and day dreams, was to interest the reader and create a sense of calmness. I also love using imagery, because of its seemingly endless number of uses, just compare “The Haunted Palace” and “The Sleeper”, the imagery I used in both is beautiful and yet so different.
IRENE ADELA: Yes it is, isn’t it? Well, look how time flies, it’s already 5 o’clock and, that concludes today’s poetry punch for this evening. Tune in tomorrow at the same time for more poem-y goodness! Thank you very much, Edgar, for joining us this evening, and I do hope you enjoy your afterlife!
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Thank you for having me.
IRENE ADELA: Hello and welcome to the 4:30pm poetry punch. I’m you’re presenter as always, and forevermore, Irene Adela. Today is a very special day for all of us in the studio, as we are lucky enough to have a famous poet guest. At 205 years old - back from the grave - The master of Poe-try - Edgar Allan Poe!
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Hello, it is an honour to be here.
IRENE ADELA: It’s an honour to have you. Let’s get to the questions. For our listeners who don’t know, you were orphaned as a very young child; does this have anything to do with many of your poems and other literary works having such dark themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: No, not at all. The Allans, who took me in shortly after my mother had died, were the kindest hearted people you would ever meet. I always had an interest in the darker side of life, especially as a child at boarding school, simply writing about touchy subjects as death in such way that nobody else at the time had thought to.
IRENE ADELA: Very interesting. Now I read that your poem, “The Sleeper” was originally titled “Irene”. Who is this Irene?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Well I wrote “The Sleeper” at a time when I was rather grief stricken, as my wife had recently passed away. Irene is the goddess of peace, and I thought of my wife as a goddess in both temperament and beauty. I hoped she would rest in peace, so in the poem I was pleading to the goddess Irene to make that so.
IRENE ADELA: Oh, how sad. How did your career start?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: It actually started quite early in my life, when I was a child of some 12 years, I loved to write and showed great promise. Plus, the ladies loved it.
IRENE ADELA: Haha they sure do. I also noticed in “The Sleeper”, you tend to use quite a bit graphic imagery, like “soft may the worms about her creep”.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: As I said before, I have always been interested in the subject of death, but I don’t believe it was truly graphic, I was just trying to express my emotions at the time and feeling for my wife. She was the greatest thing on the earth to me and I just hoped death would treat her as well as I tried to treat her when she was still living with me. *sniffs*
IRENE ADELA: *hands Edgar tissue* Many of your poems are written to a strict rhythm. May I ask what your intensions of using such rhythms were?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: My poems are written in a rhythmic beat to capture the audience’s attention, after all, what is the point of writing if nobody reads your work or hears it read aloud? The voice is the most powerful aspect of life, perhaps even more powerful than death!
IRENE ADELA: So very insightful. Can you tell us what the main themes that you tried to include in “The sleeper” were?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Of course, to challenge death and thoughts on death, and that death can be beautiful and charming as well as ugly and fearful. When a person close to you dies it is tragic, and shocking. I also tried to explore how fragile life is.
IRENE ADELA: why those main themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Because these question are the simple questions that humanity cannot find an answer to, that everyone else is afraid to answer.
IRENE ADELA: I also see in “The Sleeper” the line “Irene with her destinies”. Why did you use the mythical allusion?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Irene, as I said, is a beautiful goddess, and I likened my dead wife to her. I did this to show my grief after losing her. And the “Destinies” were there to show that my wife’s death was out of my control.
IRENE ADELA: Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Your poem the “Haunted Palace”… can you tell our listeners some of the main themes?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: The whole poem is an allegory for human life and eventual death.
IRENE ADELA: That’s incredible. You use a great amount of imagery in this poem for instance “... ghastly rapid river, though the pale door.”
EDGAR ALLAN POE: *pauses* I liked that poem.
IRENE ADELA: Oh yes and the question.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Rather boring. This poem as I said was an allegory for human life and eventual death, but that was the main theme, by using this piece of imagery I emphasised the idea that death and insanity were in par, so to speak. This poem was about this brave king “well benefitted” of sorts, having everything; money, happiness and power, and being at the mercy of insanity and death. I used this “ghastly rapid river” to show how powerless he was to becoming a tyrant and dying. I think, if I can remember correctly, I wrote it about myself.
IRENE ADELA: *laughs*
EDGAR ALLAN POE: It wasn’t a joke.
IRENE ADELA: okay. You also used a lot of metaphoric imagery in the poem, would you be able to give us an example?
EDGAR ALLAN POE: “wanders in that happy valley”?
IRENE ADELA: Yes.
EDGAR ALLAN POE: The metaphor, comparing a valley to the mind and day dreams, was to interest the reader and create a sense of calmness. I also love using imagery, because of its seemingly endless number of uses, just compare “The Haunted Palace” and “The Sleeper”, the imagery I used in both is beautiful and yet so different.
IRENE ADELA: Yes it is, isn’t it? Well, look how time flies, it’s already 5 o’clock and, that concludes today’s poetry punch for this evening. Tune in tomorrow at the same time for more poem-y goodness! Thank you very much, Edgar, for joining us this evening, and I do hope you enjoy your afterlife!
EDGAR ALLAN POE: Thank you for having me.