I have created a playlist that includes songs for both Edgar Allen Poe and Anne Bradstreet. Because these two writers have interested me as a student in reading early American literature, I have chosen them for the challenge of finding an iPod playlist to imagine them to have. Edgar Allen Poe is a writer who has very much captured my imagination since I was young, high school age. His works that I was most familiar with included imagery and mysticism that I have learned is part of Gothic writing as well as Romantics with their wild emotional stories and imagination, including natural imagery. Anne Bradstreet is a wiriter I had only heard of as I began to study in this class. She inspired me because of her poetic rants and he outright honesty as a woman who was not yet seen as individually successful. She would be an easy person to find a playlist for, though I chose to include sings that I know well and feel that they too held a piece of history as they went public.

During our discussions regarding Edgar Allen Poe, classmate Courtney Tyson wrote about the relation between Poe's writing and Gothicism. Tyson said that "The House of Usher" "bursts with Gothic imagery right from the beginning. Poe paints us an image of a haunted castle from the first paragraph"(Tyson, No Subject). Tyson continues with a quote that I also agree is relevant to Poe's "The House of Usher" and I would like to include his famously popular "The Raven", and  "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Tyson said "According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature’s article on Gothicism 'haunted castles are a staple of this genre (par. 3)'"(Tyson, No Subject). When asked to think of songs to add to a playlist that might express the ideas, imagery, or ideals of writers from the early American writers I immediately thought that Poe would have songs with clear visuals and a relation to darkness, Gothicicm, or Romanticism. The Norton Anthology of English Literature includes an article called "Gothic: An Overview" in which they describe the elements that a piece of writing may include in order to be considered "Gothic". They state "experiences connected with subterranean dungeons, secret passageways, flickering lamps, screams, moans, bloody hands, ghosts, graveyards"(Norton). This immediately made me think of "Thriller". I also included some Black Sabbath because, seriously, Ozzy Osborne is known to many as some sort of Prince of Darkness. I think he might have been inspired by Poe. Maybe. But, I included "Heaven and Hell" just for Poe. He may have listened to it after writing of his "Annabel Lee" where he refers directly to heaven and to hell. He said "And neither the angels in Heaven above,/ Nor the demons down under the sea,/Can ever dissever my soul from the soul/Of the beautiful Annabel Lee: —"(5. 4-7). His use of heaven and death references may have been meant to leave a dark shadow on the writing. Poe was a dark sort of writer, typical of the Gothic and imaginative Romantics, therefore, I had to include something that made me feel visually attached to the song as well as hearing a darker story.

Poe's "The Raven" as well as his stories such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" have a sense of doom to them. For example, "The Raven" begins darkly, saying "Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing"(Poe). I had remembered seeing the video for  Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and I believe that Poe would have had this as his number one Poe theme song in his imaginary iPod playlist. 

Here is the link to my iPod playlist on playlist.com.

 http://www.playlist.com/user/56297751/playlists

Another writer I would like to introduce into the same playlist link will be Anne Bradstreet. For Ann's courage as a writer and her feminist views, I feel that there are many, many songs that I could go into detail about. Anne was focused on women's rights in her poetry. She had written "Poems on herself as a Poet" stating her distrust in the public's view of women as writers. She wrote these lines regarding her writing "Who says my hand a needle better fits/A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong/For such despite they cast on female wits;/If what I do prove well, it won't advance/They'll say it's stol'n or by chance" (5. 2-5). She is referring to the inequality among the men and women. They were not given credit for their work, considered to be less than men. Cassandra Oestreich wrote a discussion post in Week Four Bradstreet and Taylor called "Anne Bradstreet". Oestreich writes that she "appreciated the section that Bradstreet wrote to explain how she felt about her stolen work's lack of revision"(Anne Bradstreet Discussion Week 4.)

Anne was well educated, well spoken, perhaps outspoken, and determined to write. In thinking of the time in history that Anne was writing, it was common for Puritans to try to make changes in the Church due to percieved corruption, women were not yet allowed to speak their minds. Anne wrote poetry and letters to establish her points. She remimded me of many feminist writers, much like a singer/song writer that I use to listen to many years ago. Ani Difranco is also known for writing about her act of song/poetry writing and how it affects others, especially for the rights of women. She wrote a song called "32 Flavors". In that song there is a line that many people can relate to. She sings "I am beyond your peripheral vision so you might want to turn your head. Cuz, someday you might find you are starving, and eating all of the words you just said"(Difranco). This line makes me visualize a woman who is strong, outspoken, and correct in her assumptions. I think that is what Anne Bradstreet may have been like. I also believe that she would have been a fan of Aretha Franklin. Have we all heard her song "RESPECT"? I know it well. This song is a must for a woman who likes to shout a demand for respect. During the time period in which Anne lived there were a lot of changes that were about to become history. This was a time in history that opened a door for women to be able to stand together and wait to be heard. Many changes were about to take place.

There were people fighting slavery, people fighting religious wars, about to fight a cold war, and people who were fighting to be heard. Many people began to take chances to try to end slavery or to make it more difficult and less acceptable.

In thinking about this project, I felt that there were many songs that I felt would have been on iPods for people such as Phillis Wheatley, Olaudah Equiano, and possibly the Native Americans who were taken as slaves and made to conform to the lives of the new settlers. On each of their playlists I imagine I would find lots of anti war songs, outrage at government, and some songs by a band called Rage Against the Machine. "Maggie's Farm" is potentially offensive (as I am fearful of brigning attention to the subject of the awful history of slavery) but, I think, only offensive as slavery is and was. So that is an angry fight song for the people who lived as slaves.

Overall, these songs represent what I think might have been an outlet or a familiar voice to those who I've included in this project. Enjoy.