Week One - Letter to B---- and Lenore

Letter to B----.

I have to say, I am not as interested in Poe's essays as I am his poetry and stories. Letter to B---- is a letter to his publisher about non poets critiquing poetry. He seems to be sucking a little in the beginning when he says "This, according to your idea and mine of poetry, I feel to be false — the less poetical the critic, the less just the critique, and the converse." He wants B---- to know that they share the same idea and of poetry and therefore they are of the awesome together. Or maybe that's just me.
Poe has a hate on for Wordsworth and with due cause... the poetry he quotes is really quite atrocious. I don't think Poe should judge another writer so harshly though, as it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. I do however like that Poe seemed to be quite the snob when it came to poetry (whether is was in sarcasm or not).

Lenore

Lenore is one of those poems I have read in my youth that has later become a poem that I can relate to. When you're young and reading Lenore you don't think that it could ever possibly relate to your life. You don't think that you're going to lose someone you love; everyone is immortal! How foolish we are when we're young.
Anyway, Lenore is a moving piece of work. The point of view changes between the stanzas and really conveys the emotions that the narrators are feeling. In the first stanza the priest is basically chastising Lenore's lover for not mourning her. The priest even calls the lover out for not shedding a tear. That was uncalled for I think because people mourn in different ways. It took me nearly a week to cry after we buried my Mark. Did it mean I didn't love him? No. Not only no, but hell no. It took time for everything to set in. But as we see in the next stanza Guy De Vere is not really mourning because he has some anger for the priest, and for the family of his beloved as well. De Vere believes that when Lenore first got sick that the priest didn't even try to help her; he just read her the last rites and went merrily on his way. They go back and forth discussing adamantly their own case to each other.
I really believe that in the last stanza De Vere is actually of the thought that he and Lenore will meet someday in the afterlife. He says that his heart is light, and that no dirge he will upraise; and I wonder why else would he feel like that? Because he knows that he will see her again.