Essay 3

Emeka Igbokwe
Pathways
Essay 3 Finally
November 20, 2010

Death is a Good Thing:
Techniques of Edger Allan Poe and Hans Baldung Grien

    Art is a matter of interpretation. From poetry to paintings, every work of art has a meaning, its just the task of finding out exactly what that meaning is. Something like poetry might be hard to analyze. In  some poems a title may mislead the reader into believing one thing, then once the poem has been read it might mean something totally different. In other poems though, the title is a direct suggestion of what the poem means. Writers like Edger Allen Poe often do things like this in his poetry. His way of writing was very distinct, it was either something grim or had to do with love but he always managed to  incorporate the theme of death into the work somehow. Interpreting paintings is, in a way, an easier task to complete. Many paintings show exactly what their meanings are, while one of the few aspects left to interpret is the inspiration for the painting being made. Once a reason for a painting to be made is known, it should be easier to understand what the poem means. Hans Baldung Grien was a painter during the 1300’s. Many of his painting featured sex, love and death as genres. In almost all of the paintings these genres were exhibited clearly.
    Edger Allen Poe, an American writer, knew how to catch his audience attention when writing. Like most of his writings, his early life was a tragic one. Before the age of three, both of his parents were out of his life. His father was claimed by an unknown sicknesses while it was speculated that his mother was killed by pneumonia. Many say that, along with a few other factors, was what influenced his writing style to be so grim and psychologically thrilling. Poems like “For Annie” were on the other side of the spectrum. This was one of his poems that had to do with the theme of love. Hans Baldung Grien lived earlier than Poe. While Poe was born in 1809 Baldung lived from 1484 to 1545. There was 264 year gap between the two but what they based their art on was often similar. Baldung, like Poe was born into an established family. Baldung’s family was composed of doctors and lawyers and because of that he was able to learn a lot in the artistic field; even before he served as an assistant to Albrecht Dürer (possibly one of the greatest German renaissance artists). Many of his paintings showed some sort of progression and then, much like Poe, Baldung dropped death into the portrait; one of his paintings is called Three Ages of Woman and Death.
    In the painting Three Ages of Woman and Death Baldung seems to paint four characters. Looking closer, it is apparent that there are only two real characters in the painting. There is a woman but Baldung showed the woman in three different stages of her life. At the bottom left corner of the painting is the woman as a little baby. To the right of the baby is the woman as a teenager or an adult. This woman has long hair, down to her calves and she is standing looking at what seems to be a mirror but her reflection cannot be seen. To her left and standing over the baby is the last version of the woman. This is an old hag of a woman. On the other side of the photo is a skeletal figure that seems to be falling apart. As defined in the name of the painting, this being is most likely death. Both of its hands are occupied in the painting. In one hand, it is holding up a hour glass that seems to be half full and in the other hand it is holding the only piece of garment covering the young woman and the baby. None of the women seem to be acknowledging each other. The only acknowledgment seemed to be between death and the old woman. The old woman seemed to be looking and reaching up to the hour grass but at the same time she has a terrified look on her face. The baby was preoccupied with the small garment that was covering her, seeming not have a care in the world.
    Nancy “Annie” Richmond was a woman Poe befriended in  Lowell, Massachusetts at a lecture on American poetry. As time went on, his feelings for her became stronger but because she was a married woman he knew he would not be able to act upon his feelings. Instead he framed his emotions in a poem dedicated to her titled, “For Annie”. The poem was an elating one; starting off with an optimistic: Thank Heavens ! As the poem goes on, he describes how this danger, this illness, this fever is finally over. He proclaims how he has conquered this terrible thing called life. He cannot move at all, and he is laying straight out but despite that he feels better than he ever has. He lays so “composedly”, no “moaning and groaning”, no “sighing and sobbing” they have all stopped. Even that horrible throbbing in his heart has stopped. He declares again how that maddening fever called life is finally over. He further attributes it with sickness and pain; whatever life he was living before could not compare to what the situation is for him at the moment. The whole time he has been searching to quench some insatiable thirst for something natural and he has finally found it. In some fountain or spring, under ground in a cavern not too deep, there is a natural water that he has attained at last. In this bed that all men sleep in is where he slumbers, but this bed is neither gloomy nor narrow. He lies an dreams while the beauty of Annie is drowned in her hair. She kisses and caresses him while he falls gently yet deeply asleep in her breast that he describes as heaven. He lays there and Annie preys that the angels keep him safe. As he lays there those who see him see death but his heart shines bright with the thought of the eyes of Annie.
    Baldung’s painting had two aspects to it, life and death. The painting would almost have made sense without the manifestation of death. It would have showed the progression of life from childhood to adulthood. Not only that but it would show the points of life that occupied them the most at the ages that were represented; the baby being occupied with something as trivial as a piece of cloth and the young woman taken up with her appearance, but without death and the hour-glass being depicted in the painting what would the elderly woman have to look forward to? That question is what helps give the painting meaning. All anyone has to look forward to is the inevitability of death. The old woman is inevitably looking at time pass until her last hour comes.
    For Annie was filled with optimism and elation. Every line had to do with the happiness of Poe being with Mrs. Richmond. Somehow though, Poe managed to incorporate his, seemingly, favorite theme of death into such a lively poem. What made Poe decide to talk about love as death? Was he really dead? In the third and fourteenth stanzas he stated that those who see him might fancy him of think of him as dead. He implies that it is only a sight to see, which must mean he is actually alive. Poe must be so overcome with this love that he has for Annie that he is sent into this euphoric-like bliss in which nothing matters any more. In stanza six and seven when he talks about the river that he has finally been given the opportunity to drink from, it is the river of love that he has splurged on. With the addition of the mistaken identity of death for love, the poem’s ability to entice the reader to find out what the actual reason for this death is.
    Both of these works of art would have depicted a meaning well, without the addition of the death theme. But because the theme of death was added, the meaning was enhanced. The theme of death makes meanings and lessons seem life long. Whether the message is conveyed through word or picture, if the theme of death is depicted well and can be interpreted, the meaning that is picked up from the art will be a memorable one because the person comprehending the message is able to put it in perspective.

Annotated Bibliography

Eberhard Ruhmer. “Albrecht Durer.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Academic edition. 2010. The Encyclopædia Britannica is one of the most trusted encyclopedias in the world. The information obtained was biographical information on Albrecht Durer, the mentor of Hans Baldung.

"For Annie by Edgar Allan Poe." Edgar Allan Poe, Short Stories, Tales, and Poems. Web. 24 Nov. 2010. <http://poestories.com/read/annie>.This is the website where I obtained the poem "For Annie" by Edgar Allan Poe. The website has a number of his works and a brief biography.

Kennedy, J. Gerald. A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print. From this book I received biographical information on Edgar Allan Poe and other trivial information like who Mrs. Nancy "Annie" Richmond was and information about Poe's family.

The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica. “Hans Baldung.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Academic edition. 2010. The Encyclopædia Britannica is one of the most trusted encyclopedias in the world. The information obtained from this encyclopedia was biographical information on Hans Baldung, an artist that lived during the 1300’s. Also, a painting called “Three Ages of Woman and Death” was taken

Thomas, Dwight, and David Kelly. Jackson. The Poe Log: a Documentary Life of Edgar Allan Poe, 1809-1849. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1987. Print. This book was used to obtain biographical information about Edgar Allan Poe

Blog 3

    During mid July I took a trip to Miami Florida. My cousin just graduated with a Pharmaceutical degree so the family was throwing her a party. We had been preparing for the party for months, expecting the turnout to be great. The day before the party was a rush; everyone was in a scurry to make sure everything was in order for the next night. The house was hectic as people walked in and out with supplies. Because I didn’t know the area that much I was given the job to fill the gas tanks of all the cars at the end of the day.
    There were five cars and all of their tanks were empty. I decided to have one of my cousins come with me so I wouldn’t be doing all of the work by myself. Within 40 minutes we were down to the last car. As I sped down the street I decided to scare my cousin a little bit because it was basically his first time driving with me. The first four trips I drove cautiously so when I started to swerve through the traffic he got a bit scared; understandable since I was driving 60 mph on a 45 mph zone. As the street came to an end the light turned yellow. I knew I could beat it, so I drove faster but then some guy came out of the a side street and managed to cut me off and he was going faster than me.
    As a driver with a competitive spirit, I was not going to allow him to show me up; I was driving a Dodge Charger while he was driving a Chrysler mini-van so I had to catch up to him. As we raced up to the signal light he slowed down while I was still going very fast. Luckily, the car was brand new so the brakes were still perfect. With a screeching halt I stopped with about two inches of space between his bumper and mine.
    As my cousin and I waited behind him, a red bumper sticker on the mini-van caught my eye. The sticker read “If you can read this, I can stop suddenly and sue you!”. Immediately I began laughing hysterically. Perplexed, my cousin looked at me wondering what was going on. The light turned green and we pulled into the gas station. I walked up to the mini-van with my phone to take a picture of the sticker, while my cousin was still bewildered as to why I was laughing. Once I moved away from the van my cousin looked down. Within a second the whole gas station heard him “Oh” with realization of what was so amusing to me.
    We topped the tank, then started to drive home. I drove slowly so we could take in the irony. To think, if that light wasn’t there, with the speed I was driving, if he stopped short, I would have been getting sued in the state of Florida.