Hello sunshines! No.. no! I'll try again!
Good evening my dear fellow misfits, cloudwalkers, pixies and otherkins! Weird, hidden creatures who dwell in the dark places of this world's books. I hope you're all enjoying a great book and some peaceful time! I wanted for so long to write about the damned poets of this world. Most probably because we now live in extremely dark times, exactly like the eras and blindfolded societies the poets of the past had to endure. So this will be my tribute to those... those poor souls who gave every inch of their dark thoughts and feelings to inform and warn the rest of us of what lies underneath, behind, inside and beyond!
I'll start with my favorite poet... the dark and sad Edgar Allan Poe. I've spent too many hours with his works. Allow me the pleasure of starting with him!
Edgar Allan Poe is extremely famous among those who create and listen to metal music. Mostly because his work is so dark, gloomy and related to fear, death and the unseen world. The musicality in his works helped them to become so popular in music and especially in rock and metal genres. Firstly, let's see who this man was.
Edgar Allan Poe
This weird creature was born in Boston, Massachussets in 1809, in January the 19th. His mother was English-born and his father an American. Both his parents were actors, so we can assume he got his inclination to the arts of life from them. His mother died when he was still a baby and he was placed under the care of a childless couple, in John Allan's house. John Allan was a wealthy merchant and Edgar received in England and Scotland, the classical education. His misfits and gambling led his protector cease his financial support while he was at the University of Virginia. He then decided to go back to Richmond where his mother had died and seek his love Elmira Royster, only to find her engaged. He started publishing articles and collections of poems in 1827. He also joined the army and with the help of John Allan, he got in the U.S. Military Academy, but writing and publishing his works was more important of course. Writing started to bring him profit and he married his cousin Virginia Clemm, after he established himself as a critical reviewer. He was a very good husband but his tendency to drinking brought him more problems. Such a fine pen he was, he started winning competitions very soon.
He moved to New York City and in 1838 he published "The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym", a work very famous amongst us "curious readers" even today! You may look it up on search engines of course and get a copy for yourselves, if you do not own one already! I won't go on further into the historical and biographical chapters of his life, for he was engaged in many affairs, literary, professionally and romantic as well.
Another of his popular works among the "weird creatures" is "The Fall of the House of Usher" as well as "The murders in the Rue Morgue" which as his first detective story.
"The Gold Bug" and "The Raven" gave him the publicity he craved for and awards as well.
I can say that he was a constant traveller, between the lives of people he knew, loved and lived with them, as well as in his transcendental journeys of the mind, both of horror and dark romance. He could be the most caring and loving person but on the other hand a pure nuisance to those who criticised him harshly. He could dream of a better world and he could also get extremely sad, leading to the dark masterpieces in literature we know and admire today.
Some of you reading this article, may already have noticed famous song titles of your favorite bands.
Now, Lets see some of them.. and I'll leave it up to you to look up and read the lyrics.
"Murders in the Rue Morgue" - Iron Maiden 1981 from the album "Killers"
"This godless endeavor" - Nevermore 2005 from the album "This godless endeavor"
"King of terrors" - Symphony X 2002 from the album "The Odyssey"
"Ligeia" - Annihilator 1989 from the album "Alice in Hell"
"The Raven" - Rotting Christ 2019 from the album "The Heretics"
"Ravenheart" - Xandria 2004 from the album "Ravenheart"
"Quoth the Raven" - Eluveitie 2010 from the album "Everything remains as it never was"
"Evening Star" - Ahab 2012 from the album "The Giant"
"Mask of the red death" - Stormwitch 1985 from the album "Tales of Terror"
"Masque of the red death" - Crimson Glory 1988 from the album "Transcendence"
"And when he falleth" - Theatre of tragedy 1996 from the album "Velvet darkness they fear"
"My lost Lenore" - Tristania 1998 from the album "Widow's Weeds"
"Raven" - Grave Digger 2001 from the album "The Grave Digger"
"Midnight Dreary" - Nox Arcana 2007 from the album "Shadow of the Raven"
"The Raven" - Nox Arcana 2007 from the album "Shadow of the Raven"
"Nevermore" - Nox Arcana 2007 from the album "Shadow of the Raven"
"Alone" - Green Carnation 2006 from the album "Acoustic Verses"
"From Childhood's Hour" - Circus Maximus 2007 from the album "Isolate"
"The Poet and the Pendulum" - Nightwish 2007 from the album "Dark Passion Play"
"Alone" - Arcturus 1997 from the album "La Masquerade Infernale"
"Nevermore" - Queen 1974 from the album "Queen II"
"The Raven" - Alan Parsons Project 1976 from the album "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" (a concept album on Edgar Allan Poe)
"The Black Cat" - Buddy Morrow and his Orchestra 1960 from the album "Poe for Moderns"
"Annabelle Lee" - Sarah Jarosz 2011 from the album "Follow me down"
"Annabelle Lee" - Stevie Nicks 2011 from the album "In your dreams"
"You're so dark" - Arctic Monkeys 2013 from the album "One for the road"
I also want to share something with you.. something I discovered quite recently to be honest, and I'm thrilled about it!
It's a narration by Andy Biersack (the lead singer of the "Black Veil Brides" band) of his favorite Poe's works! It looks like an amazing work altogether and I hope you find it interesting too!
I'm sure of the existence of numerous more tracks and bands having to do with Edgar Allan Poe and his works. What I find very intriguing is to explore the lyrics of these songs and indulge in the minds of others as to how they see Poe's works. I'll leave you to study them yourselves and I'm open for any discussion on the topic whether musical, literary or both.
A small selection of video clips :
Enjoy creatures of the Night!!!
Hara Dafna
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