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First loves are unforgettable, isn't it true?
First loves are, in a way, disastrous. Inexperience and incapacity, but also the discovery of new emotions. They are red with regret. Empathy, if you will.
One of my first loves is undoubtedly the brooding Poe, and I consider his 1827 debut of significant importance: Tamerlane And Other Poems.
After moving to his hometown of Boston, eighteen-year-old Edgar published, thanks to his peer friend Calvin Thomas, his first collection of youthful poems.
He could have debuted by majestically displaying his identity on the cover, he could have chosen a stage or fictional name and instead, he didn't; curiously, the collection is presented as the work of "A Bostonian". Even among the notes, the author expresses a willingness to explain his still naive style, perhaps due to his shyness.
Critics paid little attention to it, but over the years, Poe had the chance to gain some satisfaction, albeit in small quantities. Decades later, the sales of the very few remaining copies would boast revenues exceeding any sum he had ever imagined — irony — and I'm not even mentioning the earnings for The Raven!
The inexperience of the first love. One of the greatest advantages I could personally draw from Tamerlane And Other Poems is undoubtedly The Evening Star: my initiation into the world of Poe.
When you read:
I gazed awhile
On her cold smile;
Too cold – too cold for me –
There passed, as a shroud,
A fleecy cloud…
When you read about that cold gaze, that cold gaze penetrates your bones. You become captivated by the female figure (often associated with the beauty of death, as in The Sleeper) and you live within the cold cloud, confusing pain and passion.
The question that spontaneously arises is: who is Tamerlane? Based on the figure of the Turkish conqueror Timur Lenk, the author creates Tamerlane. A daring and courageous man who, on the brink of death, regrets having ignored his first love in favor of a life as a leader.
But Poe also addresses his first infatuation with Song, inspired by the Sarah that his father took away forever.
The world all love before thee – imagine this verse dedicated to your beloved, while she wears a wedding dress about to live her new life away from you. Chains.
There is no denying, for a debut, the young man pours out quite a few repressed feelings – also towards the difficult relationship with his adoptive father in Imitation.
Although derivative in some aspects, the style and especially the themes brought forth are firmly rooted in those who are struck by the verses.
"A trumpet that loudly announces the birth of a new poet, but not great poems, for the moment," many critics (and even a distant descendant of the Poe family) claim.
However, I, a nobody, can affirm that this collection wounds the heart and leaves a mark, the mark of recklessness and inexperience. The first scar that hurts more than the others.
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