HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE H0025 3/23/00 "SUE BRIDEHEAD, LONGFELLOW, AND POE" ========================================================== > Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 14:08:49 -0500 (EST) From: Candace Ploskina Subject: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe In VI:2 of Jude the Obscure, Sue is recollected reciting Poe and Longfellow as a child. My question is how popular these poets and other American poets would have been at that time. Thanks in advance. Candace Ploskina ploskina@tcnj.edu ========== Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 13:56:56 -0800 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe I'm afraid I don't have a good answer for you Candace, but my mother, who was born in the 1890s in Australia, a time when literary tastes were very much shaped by English ones, could recite "Excelsior" and was familiar with Poe, but I suspect more with his stories than with his poems. I'm sure somebody else will be more knowledgeable on this topic. I'm curious myself. Betty Cortus hardycor@mailhost2.csusm.edu ========== From: "Alan Shelston" Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 22:02:50 -0000 Poe's The Raven and Other Poems was first published in England in 1846 and while it was poorly received, reprints of Poe's poetry were popular in Britain from the 1870s (see Ian Walker, Edgar Allan Poe: the Critical Heritage, 1986). The Fall of the House of Usher appeared in Bentley's Magazine in England in 1838 alongside Oliver Twist. Anthologies of American poetry appeared in Britain from the mid C19 and Longfellow was more generally popular. The reference in Jude suggests the modernity of Sue's taste perhaps - Poe became increasingly popular amongst aesthetic groups, by association with the French symbolists. Alan Shelston ========== From: KVANART@aol.com Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 17:39:44 EST Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Dont know if it will help, but my great great aunts husband,John Newton Van Lew was a friend of Poe along with his sister Lizzie Van Lew(the famous Union spy during the Civil war here in Richmond), and they were both interested in science and used to play with experiments in static electricity in the parlour.(Doubtless on same occasions of his poetry readings at the Van Lew's.)Keith Van Allen ========== From: "James Gibson" Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 23:38:45 -0000 Hardy knew Edgar Allan Poe's work extremely well. See, for example, Thomas Hardy - Interviews and Recollections, page 51, where John Cooper Powys describes Hardy's visit to Montacute in 1896 'He (Hardy) called my attention to Edgar Allan Poe's "Ulalume" as a powerful and extraordinary poem.' Replying in 1909 to an invitation from the University of Virginia to attend the 100th Anniversary of Poe's birth, Hardy wrote: The University of Virginia does well to commemorate the birthday of this poet. Now that lapse of time has reduced the insignificant and petty details of his life to their true proportion beside the measure of his poetry, and softened the horror of the correct classes at his lack of respectability, that fantastic and romantic genius shows himself in all his rarity. His qualities, which would have been extraordinary anywhere, are much more extraordinary for the America of his date. Why one who was in many ways disadvantageously circumstanced for the development of the art of poetry should have been the first to realize to the full the possibilities of the English language in rhyme and alliteration is not easily explicable. It is a matter for curious conjecture whether his achievements in verse would have been the same if the five years of childhood spent in England had been extended to adult life. That 'unmerciful disaster' hindered those achievements from being carried further must be an endless regret to lovers of poetry. (The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy by Thomas, p.370) Just as interesting is a letter to Sir George Douglas, dated 20 November 1901, in which Hardy writes: That you have taken up Poe delights me: his two small sheaf of verse has genius in every line as well as music. (C.L.vol.2,p.303) James Gibson. ========== Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2000 20:47:31 -0500 From: Robert Schweik Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe By way of adding just a little to points made by Alan Shelston, something of the popularity of Poe's writings may be judged from his influence on both Continental and British writers. In France, as early as the 40's his "Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Black Cat," "The Gold Bug" some other writings were translated, and in England *Bentley's Miscellany" published four of his tales in the same decade, and, as Alan wrote, *The Raven and Other Poems* was first published in England in 1846 and reprints of his poetry were available in England from the 70's onward. Rossetti's "The Blessed Damosel" was in part inspired by Poe's "The Raven"--though, offhand, I don't know whether that influence was known in the 1890's. But, as Alan indicates, a particular cachet Poe would have had in the 90's was his association with the aesthetes by way of France. Baudelaire's translations of Poe's work--he largely occupied himself with that task from 1847 to 1865--had an influence on Gautier and on the French symbolists and English aesthetes and *could*, as Alan suggests, have suggested the modernity of Sue taste, perhaps. But linking Poe's name with Longfellow (he was, I think, much better known than Poe in England), doesn't particularly suggest "modernity" was what Hardy had in mind. And, too, Poe and Longfellow had an ongoing public antagonism with each other--though to what extent that was part of the English consciousness in the 90's I don't know. What intrigues me then is the question Alan's post raises. Just what associations would a reference to having read Poe *and* Longfellow in one's youth have conveyed to a 90's audience? Bob schweik@ait.fredonia.edu ========== From: WWKerrigan@aol.com Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 07:45:15 EST Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Poe and Longfellow are probably meant to contrast. Poe southern, Longfellow northern. Poe kicked out of a university, Longfellow a professor at Harvard. Poe died young, with scant success in his literary career. Longfellow lived a long life for a fellow, and was bured in Westminster Abbey-- schoolchildren all around America used annually to celebrate his birthday. Poe wrote mostly short stories and short poems, and theorized that for the lyric 100 lines or so was the ideal. Longfellow, though he wrote shorter poems, excelled at long narratives. And how timely to pair them at the end of the 19th century-- at just about the time when Poe would ascend to eminence and Longfellow descend to (I hope temporary) oblivion. Wally Kerrigan ========== From: KVANART@aol.com Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 11:24:29 EST Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Am so happy to find Hardy admiration of Poe especially Ulalume /as I am currently producing a film on that poem and enamored with hardy as well/Keith Van allen ========== From: KVANART@aol.com Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 15:52:54 EST Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Nice piece/good comparison/The struggling Southerner vs the Advantaged Northerner is a syndrome to the present day although it seems (I hope) to be fast disappearring/In my formative years one had to eschew ones "southerness" lose your accent and move north or west in order to have a chance at success in the arts/you could stay southern and become an engineer,doctor,lawyer etc. but not a writer,artist,composer etc./For one who derives much of his inspiration from his native soil(like Hardy ) this is extremely hard,but as i say times have changed/As to Longfellow & Poe ,I love them both/interestingly, one of my favorite Longfellow poems,"Skeleton in Armour" is quite Poe-esque./K Van Allen ========== Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 12:41:04 -0500 (EST) From: Candace Ploskina Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Dear wise Hardy people, I just wanted to thank the many list members who responded to my query! Your help is much appreciated! Now that I've "broken the ice," I know that I can send questions again in the future. Thanks! Candace Ploskina ploskina@tcnj.edu ========== From: KVANART@aol.com Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 17:27:58 EST Subject: Re: Sue Bridehead and Longfellow/Poe Poe's true compatriot of letters is Nathaniel Hawthorne,specifically in his "Twice Told Tales" and other short stories such as "Mosses from the Old Manse" .They were published concurrently and Poe actually wrote reviews on them(quite favorable ones) during his career at The Southern Literary Messenger here in Richmond. A study of both collections reveals an amazing amount of borrowing of themes but differences in intensity. Hawthorne could be described as the "kinder gentler Poe". And both were obviously influenced by E.T.A. Hoffmann. They were the catalists and primary inspiration of the fantastic/metaphysical/surrealistic strain of American Literature right up to the teleplays of Rod Serling/a strain which for many of us amounts to a religion. ==========