Fans Of Poe?

[DumbBlondeBit]

Hey guys I know nada about OI, but i have novices interested in doing it...someone asked me if i could get some Edgar Allen Poe pieces for her....and I was just wondering what you all thought about that...something tells me Poe's poems and short stories would be a little odd...any input?

[Ryan]

Amarillo is cool, but the others wouldn't work very well I think for Poetry.

[tonyizanxmen]

NO! NO! NO! BURN IT! NO! NO MORE POE! NO! NEVER!!!!!!.....<calms down> i mean umm yeah, i just dont htink its the greatest idea ever. Generally, wha ive seen do the best in poetry are much more contemporary pieces. Jus as a rule of thumb, try to stay away from pieces that use alot of diction/words that aren't very commonly used anymore (as in those not used w/in tha last century...)

[OverMyHead]

Poe is EVIL!!! One girl did the raven last year and she actually quoted the raven by say "Nevermore" in a horrible parrot squak!

[IamTHATnerd]

yeah well, we all say this, yet the guy who won 1st at cfl nats this year in OI, teddy, did a walt whitman poem. so obviously, classic poetry is in right now. i say go for it. maybe its not what we're used to, but who says thats a bad thing?

[Josiahzacks]

Poe is EVIL!!! One girl did the raven last year and she actually quoted the raven by say "Nevermore" in a horrible parrot squak!

Every year someone does that. Just deal with it, and then make sure you beat them.

let's not talk about teddy :roll:

[IamTHATnerd]

haha josh, you rock

[poetryforcats]

Do NOT do original Poe. It just does not work, and it is overused!! However, spoofs on Poe, if you can find published ones, are okay. But the second, as a novice, I mentioned Poetry, the first thing anyone said to me was, "Right, great. But no Poe."
So...yeah

[washcfl]

yeah well, we all say this, yet the guy who won 1st at cfl nats this year in OI, teddy, did a walt whitman poem. so obviously, classic poetry is in right now. i say go for it. maybe its not what we're used to, but who says thats a bad thing?

Seconding this point. I always do well in poetry rounds (and horrible in prose ones, but that's another story) mainly because I like to do older poetry. I remember doing a selection of Oscar Wilde's sonnets about Italy and doing extremly well. Those were sonnets, which aren't even in free verse like Whitman. I think part of it is because judges instinctively associate a rhyming, iambic-pentamer sonnet about nationalism with the spirit of poetry recital more than a free-verse, prose-y David Levithan poem about teenage angst.

[GFan]

I love Poe, but I usually like to do the more obscure Poe works rather than the obvious "Raven" and "Tell-Tale Heart."

I wouldn't advise novices to do it though, mainly because they probably don't know how to "interpret" in a more original manner, and it's not exactly the easiest piece to do well with. Just my two cents.