Poetry Concentrated Ed:5

The Happiest Day- The Happiest Hour

The happiest day- the happiest hour

My sear'd and blighted heart hath known,
The highest hope of pride and power,
I feel hath flown.

Of power! said I? yes! such I ween;
But they have vanish'd long, alas!
The visions of my youth have been-
But let them pass.

And, pride, what have I now with thee?
Another brow may even inherit
The venom thou hast pour'd on me
Be still, my spirit!

The happiest day- the happiest hour
Mine eyes shall see- have ever seen,
The brightest glance of pride and power,
I feel- have been:

But were that hope of pride and power
Now offer'd with the pain
Even then I felt- that brightest hour
I would not live again:

For on its wing was dark alloy,
And, as it flutter'd- fell
An essence- powerful to destroy
A soul that knew it well

---Edgar Allen Poe----                                                                                           

Make sure to read it twice. I know it’s a bit long, but try to understand the poem before you move on.

Welcome to the fifth edition of Poetry Concentrated, and I hope you enjoyed that poem by Poe. It’s a difference isn’t it? I’ve been posting too many Hardys’ so I thought I’d give you something else. This poem is one of Poe’s most famous, and although I’m not personally a big fan of Poe, the story behind this poem is pure emotion. It’s full of wonder, fear and that feeling of “what will happen to me?”.  I’m looking for a word, but I can’t seem to remember it. That’s why I just put the feeling direct in quotations. It’s a feeling we all get at some stage of our lives, that wonder of looking up and thinking ‘what’s next?’

I think that’s what makes this poem special; it’s relatable. To Poe, as you’ll see later, it represented the turning point in his life, from where on he went to become the person he did, the renounced poet and author. Later is now, and here’s the summary of the poem by an amazing website, Weebly.

The poem was written in 1827, the same year Poe dropped out of school and had his first poems printed. This poem is about Poe following his passion and realizing that it will not be easy. Poe’s foster father John Allan did not know what made him become a writer because the profession was not looked highly upon. When Poe dropped out of school to peruse his dream of writing it meant that John Allan would no longer support him financially. This poem reflects Poe’s realization that the road he has chosen will not be an easy or comfortable one. Poe is saying that the emotional fall one takes after their happiest moment outweighs the overall happiness. The happiest moment Poe felt was the moment when his pride and power were at their highest. Poe is warning us that as Pride and Power fly higher and higher the imminent fall grows larger. And like anything else that falls from a great height, a crater is left, making the fall longer than the flight and harder to recover from. (Click here to go the full summary: http://edgarallanpoethehappiestdaytheha.weebly.com/poem-analysis.html)

Even I can’t imagine the love of poetry Poe had. To drop out school, to give up financial aid, to pursue a career in writing Poetry? Even today, being a poet isn’t enough to live upon, you must have something backing it up, so imagine what suffering he must have gone through to support it. Here’s an extract from the Wikipedia article:

Born in Boston, Poe was the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia. Although they never formally adopted him, Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. Poe quarrelled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. Later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point and declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, Poe parted ways with John Allan.

You can click here to go the full Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe

If you have a passion, pursue it, and even if you don’t reach success financially, you’ll love what you do, and that can’t be said for many other people who have succeeded financially. And in today’s society, to do what you love is easy, with so many types of media open to people with a passion, be it filming, photography, music, art or writing.

Today’s Poetry Concentrated was a bit out of the ordinary wasn’t it? It was bigger than usual, more information packed, and had a different poet too.  Don’t worry, hopefully the following editions won’t be this big, but they’ll be slimed down. I’m going to work on slimming down my articles, keeping it simple and focused on Poetry.

Quick question: Would you like me to keep these more personal, like in this and previous articles, with the occasional question and smile, or make it professional, like a newspaper? I’d prefer it personal, because that’s the way I write, but if you prefer it otherwise I’m ready for that too.

So, that’s the end of this edition of Poetry Concentrated! I hope you like what we do! Time for the formalities:

If you enjoyed this, make sure to check out the previous 3 editions of Poems Concentrated:

Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html

Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html

Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html

Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html

Please be sure to share and +1 this and comment on this!

Remember, if you are an aspiring poet or even an established one, please do send in your poems with a short summary to spitfirerob@gmail.com, because we’d love to feature them!

Thanks for reading!