Weird Poets

Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore classic American poetry; not because it's good because, let's face it, old poets were indeed weirdos. You have Dickinson going all bezerk with these dashes that make us panic and feel undone. Whereas Whitman is a fellow who is  undeniably gender fluid, he talks of a she, he, and himself but all as himself in the 11th stanza in the packet. The obscurity of these poets is so marvelous for the reason of, well me at least, thinking "what in the sam-heck possessed these poets to constantly end lines with dashes, and refer to oneself as a she and he and I?" I was so confused and irritated with the fact that I was unable to have a legitimate answer as to why Dickinson predicted her death, and even called herself blind. Like, why on earth are you even closing yourself within four walls constantly and not wonder what it beyond those four walls. But hey, maybe it's just Dickinson thing that I'd rather not know, or it is just simply explainable. But, because of these poets and their peculiarities, I do find them really interesting which made their poems all the better (confusing maybe, but at least it's better than boring!).

Poe

This past week we've started reading some poetry in American Literature, and let me tell you, there are most defiantly some interesting poems we've read. But more importantly, there's this really interesting dude named Edgar Allan Poe. "Hmm, that name sounds super familiar.. Where have I heard this name before?" were my immediate thoughts when I heard this, then I recalled this one Simpsons episode where Bart, Maggie, and Lisa reenacted The Raven written by him. But this Poe guy, his life seems like H-E-double-hockey-sticks; I mean his life was just terrible. He was poor, he had a bad love life, and the worst of it all.. he was a middle child. Now come on, being a middle child sucks; it seems as though you're never really as important as the other siblings. Other than Poe being a middle child, his poetry was pretty dang creepy, I mean, lots of morbid, and supernatural things are just always happening. Like in The Cask of Amontillado, I mean he killed a guy in the Catacombs. Like, could you've picked a better place to kill someone, or even store wine. Now, just storing wine by dead bodies is just morbid all by itself, but killing a person, I mean Fortunato shoulda had that coming considering he was quite the jerk to Montresor, but then again he was drunk and it's not everyday you get your hands on the delicacy Amontialldo, though I don't really suggest losing your life over it.

Icha-What?

In American Literature we recently read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and let me tell you, Irving had quite the imagination; in this legend, there was this dude who rode a horse with his head on his hand chucking it at this other dude, there was some dude name Brom Bones, another dude named Ichabod, and a lady named.. Katrina. Don't get me wrong, I love names that are pretty unfamiliar (unique) but two "odd" names and one Katrina it's.... it's something. Hey, what do I know? Maybe Katrina was a pretty hip name back in Irving's day, or maybe even his lover's name was Katrina. Anywho, in this text, Ichabod was this guy who was pretty tall and lanky who was head over heals for the money Katrina had, and also in the text, there was this other guy named Brom Bones. Brom Bones was a tall muscular dude who also liked Katrina for her looks. Katrina, according to the text, was a pretty good looking lady who had lots of money, now don't know much about her personality, but she sounds like the whole package, so who could resist that? So you know, two guys like the same girl, blah blah blah they duke it with words, dancing and Ichabod getting a head chucked at him. I mean interesting, right? Pretty unexpected turn of events there.. I mean, who'd expect that? Irving would, that's who. The whole legend had a whole spooky and peculiar feel that really made me wonder where Irving got his idea from.. Maybe he was just bored and let his imagination run wild, maybe similar events happened to him and he just changed the names, who knows?