Pot of Poetry: Poe's "To My Mother"

Edgar Allan Poe was a renowned poet and short-story writer. His expertise is frightening people out. I can only imagine the things that he's been through both physically and mentally.

This is true for most of his poems. However, some of his poems remind me that he's just a proper human being as the rest of us, a person with ordinary feelings, ordinary affections, ordinary capacity to love. I think the poem "To My Mother" is a perfect example of that.

Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of “Mother,”
Therefore by that dear name I long have called you—
You who are more than mother unto me,
And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother—my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
By that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.

The first four lines is filial obligation. A child is expected to be "devotional" to their mothers, to treat them with love and respect. But Poe is not talking about his mother here. He's talking about his wife's mother. His deceased wife's mother.

He says that "death installed [the mother]/In setting [his wife's] spirit free." And that's the reason why that mother is "more than a mother" to him. Because he loved his wife so much, he extended that love to the people that his wife loved and the people that loved his wife.

He even has a reason to love his wife's mother more than his own mother because he his wife "was dearer to [his] soul than its soul-life." The fact that he loves her mother more than his mother is in parallel with the fact that he loves her more than he loves himself.

But it doesn't mean that the mother is just a representative of is wife, or replacement of his mother. He calls her My Mother. It's his own mother. His relationship with her is also personal, not just an in-law relationship.

The most touching part is that it's true. Poe was so close to his mother-in-law. He sent letters to her as much as one would to a mother. He might be the master of psychopathic stories but, a man is but a man.

Shorty July: The Masque of the Red Death

Why did I read the story? It's not on my to-read list, and I'm not a fan of Poe's prose works. To be honest, Phantom brought me there. I heard that the story inspires Phantom's masquerade costume, so I read the story. But i have nothing to regret. It's a good story, and I'd like to share my thoughts about it.

In Bahasa:

Alkisah ada sebuah wabah bernama “Red Death”, yang telah menelan begitu banyak korban. Wabah ini tidak pandang bulu, dan dengan mudah merebak, membunuh siapapun yang terjangkit. Seorang bangsawan, bernama Prospero, tidak ingin terkena wabah mematikan ini. Ia dan beberapa temannya akhirnya mengungsi ke sebuah rumah yang mewah, lengkap dengan segala sarana yang nyaman, demi menghindari wabah tersebut.

Suatu hari, ia mengadakan pesta topeng, dan ke pesta itu datanglah seorang tamu tidak dikenal, mengenakan kostum yang sangat mirip dengan korban “Red Death”. Prospero marah besar, dan memerintahkan agar tamu bertopeng tersebut ditangkap. Namun akhirnya..

Kisah ini sebenarnya menandaskan bahwa tidak seorang pun di dunia ini dapat mencurangi kematian, atau bersembunyi darinya. Prospero seolah mencoba cara terakhir untuk menyembunyikan diri dari maut, namun ke situ pulalah maut menjemput. Penyajian cerita yang gelap dan kelam khas Poe juga menambah ketegangan ketika membaca kisah ini. Jelaslah, kisah ini bukan kisah pengantar tidur (pengantar begadang, mungkin?). Silakan dicoba.

In English:

Prospero was a rich nobleman who tried to escape the “Red Death” - a plague that impartially and effectively killed people in the area. This plague was terrible, marked with pain and blood. Terrified by the possibility of contracted by the disease, he and some of his friends retired to a house far from the plague. He entertained his guest in every means possible, and even held parties for them.

Once he held a masquerade, in 7 different rooms with 7 different colours. In that party, an uninvited guest came. He wore a mask resembling a victim of the Red Death, thus scaring Prospero so much that he ordered the guest to be immediately captured – with no success.

The story tells us how impossible it is to cheat death or run away or hide form it. No matter how you try, it will come and catch you one day. Poe's dark and gloomy writing style adds more thrill to the story, gives it gothic elements in it, which is fun, but not that fun for a bedtime story.