Ars Poetica I
I revisit one of my favorite poems
“The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe.
I admire how the Gothic writer
Writes about grief and darkness—nothing lighter.
I don’t mimic his way of writing
But his vulnerability—it’s mesmerizing
How he uses such symbols
As a raven, to show how dreadful
Mourning a loved one can truly be.
I write with such vulnerability
But don’t use as much imagery,
And I wonder how much
Telling I do instead of
Showing.
I try to include
My eerie thoughts that intrude
Any sense of normality
To show the reality
Of the horrors that live in my head.
One day, they will make it to the paper
For a reader to relate to
As I find that people live through
The same horrors that I do.
But anxiety fills my brain
While my fears eat away at me,
Wondering if I could ever use as much
Powerful imagery
As Edgar Allan Poe does in
“The Raven”, “Tell-Tale Heart”, and “Annabel Lee”.
Ars Poetica II
I try to let myself go,
Let my thoughts flow with the wind.
But the more the word vomit slows,
The more my patience has thinned.
I love writing poetry
Nothing is more inspiring than
Wondering to be or not to be,
Then writing like Shakespeare can.
Shakespeare may have passed
Some hundred odd years before,
But with the fans he has massed,
Centuries later we still adore.
It’s as if he is still here with us.
I hope to continue his ways, even in my inexpertness.
Annotated Bibliography
Allan Poe, Edgar. “The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe.” PoeStories.com, 1843, poestories.com/read/telltaleheart.
“Tell-Tale Heart” is one of my favorite stories by Edgar Allan Poe. I brought it up in this poem because the blue eye is what made him anxious in the beginning of the story and then after murdering the old man he believed the police could hear the floorboards when really it was his own anxiety. The imagery and symbolism he used for anxiety and madness was so beautiful and frightening.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” Poetry Foundation, 29 Jan. 1845, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven.
I used “The Raven” as the main influence of this poem because the raven was a symbol of grief and I want to be able to use symbolism and imagery more in my poetry.
Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” Poetry Foundation, 1849, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee.
I referenced “Annabel Lee” in this poem because I love the way that Poe writes about the love of his life but also ends the poem in her dying. He even takes something positive and makes it dark.
Poetry Foundation. “Poetry Foundation.” Poetry Foundation, 2019, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56965/speech-to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-t he-question.
I referenced Hamlet’s soliloquy because it is one of Shakespeare’s most famous lines to show how influential his writing is to me and how much his writing still influences media today.
Shakespeare, William. “Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” Poetry Foundation, 1609, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45087/sonnet-18-shall-i-compare-thee-to a-summers-day.
This is a famous sonnet by Shakespeare. I tried my best to write a Shakespearean sonnet even though I realized I focused more on rhyme scheme then the stressing of syllables. I started writing poetry after doing a sonnet assignment in my high school freshman year after reading Romeo and Juliet. It’s where it all started.
Myshara Whittington is a dark literature enthusiast, a poet, and creative non-fiction writer from Rhode Island. In 2024, she obtained her B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Rhode Island College. She has a recent publication in The Anchor, RIC’s student newspaper, highlighting library staff and their contributions to serving the community. When she’s not writing, you can find her advocating for the POC alternative community and library users.
Featured image by Anastasiya Dalenka on Unsplash.
