As we enter Halloween week, I have a present for you, my fellow, dear Rubes: a story to tell you, in poem form, of a love so beautiful, it’s worth sleeping on cold gravestone. Best part, I am going to read it to you. Momma Carla reads you a story. Let the wild underwhelming rumpus begin! (Actually, I quite think you’ll like it.)
This is Poe’s last published poem, and, of course, a heavy influence on the first chapter of Lolita, one of my favorite novels, with one of my favorite opening passages in literature. (I warned you it was dark in here. Safe, but dark.)
After you get all comfy and listen to my reading to you, you can listen to two lovely ladies singing their versions, as you drift off to sleep, hearing over their voices the music of the heavenly spheres, and the pounding of the waves against the sides of the family crypt…
English