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Previous post too long:
This it is - and nothing more. I sincerely doubt anyone here has has the rythm to read this out loud from start to finish. Poe is a gothic American Shakespeare. There is a reason he is still a legend almost 200 years after his death.
The first two phrases in every stanza are straight up rhymes. The third exponation tosses a twist into things, it corrupts the rythm and violates the emotion. You're no longer in control. Sure, you can read it like "Hickory Dickory Dock... everything fucking rhymes..."
But it doesn't. This poem is pure improvisational brilliance from start to finish. The cadence changes constantly. There is no rythm to fall into. Two phrase of ryhme. Four following phrases of emotional breakdown. Its next to impossible to tie them together.
The last person to get a Poe reading right was Vincent Price. I can't read it. You can't, either. It may seem simple, but listen to Vincent Price read it. You'll know you are wrong - just as I am.
The Raven is - perhaps - harder to read aloud than MacBeth (the most accessible of Shakespeare's plays, but - hey!) I guarantee you cannot read this poem aloud without getting lost. Not from start to finish. Not with the proper emotion.
Now Poe's genius is reduced to a fifty year old John Cusack starring in a shitty action movie. I'll stick with the Roger Corman version.
Next week, I'll do Clive Barker. In The Hills, The Cities. Read something, please... Books of Blood. Weaveworld (genius... As in Pure. Fucking. Pure. Fucking Genius.) Read it. Bet you can't! Once again - Never Bet The Devil Your Head!
Next week, Clive Barker. I think Rawhead Rex. Go through he Books of Blood and then - perhaps - we'll look into H.P. Lovecraft and his protege August Derleth.
I would slap all this into spoiler tags if we had them here. But we don't!
Your literacy is going to be tested. Ignore it - easier with spoiler tags.
Practice "The Raven". There is not one person here - myself included - who can read that poem start to finish. They could do it in 1840. Can't do it now.
Maybe we'll just look at pictures of girl's bumholes. That's a better idea...
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