The Raven, the masterpiece of the American writer Edgar Allan Poe, was first published on 29 January  1845 in Evening Mirror and American Review. Certainly, the term masterpiece used with regard to the poem must be explained since it lies in the core of the thesis, which will be elucidated in this text. In April 1946 in Graham’s Magazine, the author published a critical essay entitled The Philosophy of Composition whereby he elaborated on the creative method he used to created his emblematic work. The text is very interesting because it completely achieves its implied intentions through argumentation of its explicit ostensible objectives. In the introductory section, Poe declared that he wrote his famous poetical work in order to demonstrate that the creation of a good piece of art satisfactory both to mass taste and higher critical requirements was nothing more than a well-considered methodological process that could have been, or rather could be, implemented by a professional. To this end, creative work, the literary object, was presented as a professional product rather than an act of inspiration – idea which, by the way, is consistent with the meaning of the ancient Greek term τέχνη. The thing that Poe, for reasons of diffidence, had to leave out in that essay, was that the presented method offered expertise not just for creation of a work of art but of a real artistic achievement, of a perfect artistic product. A more assiduous look into the methodology explained in The Philosophy of Composition will reveal that each and every element has been developed separately in numerous versions in author’s previous poems. (I shall only mention his preferred use of the long resonant ‘o’ and the extreme frequency of the lexemes ‘nevermore’, ‘ever more, ‘Lenore’). In this context, it could be said that The Philosophy of Composition is a well-thought-out theory of poetry resulting from a long process of creative gropings and first applied, in its entirety, in the creation of The Raven. However, if this text is an artistic methodology generated in the process of long creative wanderings and experiments, its deliberate and immediate association solely with Poe’s poem published in the preceding year aims at one thing only – to show that the author considers that poem the completeness and perfection of his efforts, i.e. his masterpiece. 

Lamia, John Waterhouse

Lamia, the poem of the Priest of Beauty, as Oscar Wilde defined John Keats during the late Victorian era, is deeply embedded both in the traditions of the aesthetics of beauty, canonic for the English high poetry and first formulated by Philip Sidney in 1581 (The Defence of Poetry) and in the subculture, which produced the phenomenon of the English middle class as exceptional need for luxury and pleasure. The abundance of pleasure seeping from poem verses could satiate expectations for exclusive sensations even of the most effeminate audience with images of beautiful nymphs, at whose white feet the languid Triton poured pearls (A nymph, (…) to whom all hoofed Satyrs knelt;/ At whose white feet the languid Tritons poured/ Pearls, while on land they wither’d and adored) or belles bowing down to their beloved like a fading moon or a flower cuddled into itself when evening comes (she, like a moon in wane,/ Faded before him, cower’d, nor could restrain/ Her fearful sobs, self-folding like a flower/ That faints into itself at evening hour.).  The lovely poem, however, also offers one of the most luxurious images inhabiting the dreams of some Gautier’s protagonists (Ramold from La Morte Amoureuse is also a priest) or Kazot – the enamored female vampire - an image implied originally by John Milton in Paradise Lost. 

Бихме искали да предложим на нашите читатели един наш превод на поемата на Байрон Darkness, която той написва във вила Диадори по време на феноменалната ваканция през 1816 г. (известна още като „Годината без лято”) на трима от най-големите представители на английския романтизъм, и вампиризъм – Байрон, Пърси и Мери, бъдеща мисис Шели.

През 17… се отправих на пътешествие, което отдавна мислех да направя, из страни, които не толкова често попадат в маршрутите на туристите, придружен от един приятел, когото ще нарека с името Огъст Дарвил. Той беше няколко години по-възрастен от мене, притежаваше значително състояние и произхождаше от старинен род – преимущества, които изключителният му интелект не пренебрегваше, но и не надценяваше. Някои особени обстоятелства от личния му живот го превръщаха в обект на специален интерес за мен и дори беше спечелил уважението ми, което нито неговата резервираност в маниерите, нито повтарящите се пристъпи на тревога и безпокойство, които понякога граничеха с пълно отчуждение, не можеха да охладят.

Суеверието, върху което е построена тази история, е много разпространено на Изток. То е било характерно за арабите, но успява да стигне до Гърция едва след утвърждаването на християнството като официална религия там, а след разделянето на Латинската и Гръцката църква приема онези форми, в които го познаваме днес. Оттогава идеята, че тялото на римлянин, погребан на гръцка територия, не може да се разложи, постепенно започнала да придобива широка популярност, превръщайки се в сюжет на редица чудесни истории, все още запазени до днес, в които се разправя за мъртъвци, които излизат от гробовете си и се хранят с кръвта на красиви младежи и момичета. С малки вариации това схващане се разпространява на Запад в цяла Унгария, Полша, Австрия и Лотарингия, където съществува вярването, че вампирите всяка нощ отпивали малка порция кръв от своите жертви, които постепенно започвали да се чувстват все по-изтощени, губели силите си и скоро умирали от туберкулоза, докато в същото време телата на тези същества ставали топли, вените им се изпълвали с кръв, която можела да достигне до всяка една част от тялото им и дори до порите по повърхността на кожата им.

PROLOGUE

Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which he accompanies with a reference to his Essay on the strange subject which the MS. illuminates.

As I publish the case, in this volume, simply to interest the “laity,” I shall forestall the intelligent lady, who relates it, in nothing; and after due consideration, I have determined, therefore, to abstain from presenting any precis of the learned Doctor’s reasoning, or extract from his statement on a subject which he describes as “involving, not improbably, some of the profoundest arcana of our dual existence, and its intermediates.”

                                        PART I