My playlist for Phyllis Wheatley and Edgar Allan Poe can be found here,http://pl.st/p/22693123595.

The two people whom I chose to make a playlist for are Phyllis Wheatley and Edgar Allan Poe. I admire their works for completely different reasons, but I view both of them as strong individuals who had an amazing gift for writing literature. Phyllis Wheatley wrote for justice, she was a minority in every way in early America, yet she did not let that sway her. She wrote what she felt and is the epitome of what the feminism movement would become. I also enjoyed Edgar Allan Poe for his poems and short stories. He covered many different genres of writing, from romance to mystery, and himself is very elusive. I like that he himself remains sort of an early American mystery, whose writings will live forever.

I believe that if Phyllis Wheatley were alive today, one song that she would enjoy listening to is "Survivor" by Destiny's Child. Both "Survivor" and Phyllis Wheatley's "Letter to Reverend Samson Occum" contain the Enlightenment idea of "universal benevolence- attitude of helping everybody"(Rueben). Wheatley was a slave, therefore she was being unjustly held by her white slave owners, but instead of wishing ill upon them she states, in "Letter to Reverend Samson Occum" that "I desire not for their Hurt, but to convince them of the strange Absurdity of their Conduct whose Words are so diametrically opposite"(Wheatley). She did not want them to suffer in the way that they had made her and her people suffer, but she did want them to see the wrongness of their ways. As Adam Wick notes "she undoubtedly saw how whites placed themselves on a pedestal of superiority"(Wick, "Wheatley and Freneau"). The wrongness of slavery was clear to those it was thrust upon, Wheatley managed to refrain from feeling the urge to seek revenge on those who had done her wrong. This character trait is also found in the song "Survivor". While it seems this song has more to do with domestic abuse issues, it is still about a woman who knows she is being wrongly controlled and is strong enough to rise above it. The song goes "Now that you are out of my life/I'm so much better/You thought that I'd be weak without ya/But I'm stronger"(Knowles). This shows that her abuser had the same idea of supremacy that the whites felt over the slaves. Even after all of this controlled living, revenge is not sought in this song but, rather the abuser is wished "Much success, no stress, and lots of love and happiness"(Knowles). It is always admirable when victims can feel kindness instead of wrath toward those who have unmercifully taken advantage of them. I think that Wheatley would really resonate with the message of this song, she would also like the beat, because who doesn't secretly pray for a Destiny's Child reunion every night...

Another song that I believe Wheatley would connect with is "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. I feel that her "On Being Brought from Africa to America" and Mayer's "Waiting on the World to Change" contain the same theme, which is the need for political change. Wheatley states "Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain/ May be refin'd and join th'angelic train"(Wheatley ll.7-8). She is urging America's white "Christian" population to look at their actions, and see them as wrong. She knows that it would take a major change in America's policies to free her people, but she is doing her best to get her message out there. Much in the same way, Mayer is using his music to voice his message of political change, his disagreeance with the war, and the governments control over media. He knows that singularly, he cannot change the status of government, but it is his duty to voice his opinion if he wants to see improvements. He sings "Now we see everything is going wrong/With the world and those who lead it /We just feel like we don't have the means/To rise above and beat it"(Mayer). Both of these people saw injustices happening around them, and chose to use their creative voices to call attention to it. I think Wheatley would applaud Mayer's quest for peace, I also believe she would think he was mysteriously hot.

The other author whom I made a short playlist for is Edgar Allan Poe. I found his writings to be very powerful and his life to be very obscure. Since Poe's writings vary greatly, from romantic poems to mysterious stories, I felt that his iPod would vary just as vastly. First and foremost, any great romantic is obviously going to be a country music fan. I think Poe would enjoy listening to Randy Travis's "Forever and Ever Amen" because it has all of the  aspects of a great country music song: eternal love and a catchy chorus. The chorus of "Forever and Ever Amen" sings "Oh baby, I'm gonna love you forever/ Forever and ever amen"(Travis). Travis uses the repetition in his song to reassure his love that what they have is everlasting. While reading Poe's "Annabell Lee" there is also a lot of repetition, Poe writes, "In this kingdom by the sea" and "Of the beautiful Annabel Lee"(Poe) repeatedly in this poem. His fluidity and repetition combined with the romantic story of "Annabell Lee" make this poem seem to flow freely as if meant to be paired with music.  Another similarity between these two is the theme of undying loyalty. Travis sings "As sure as I live, this love that I give/ Is gonna be yours until the day that I die"(Travis) which mimics Poe's feelings toward Annabel Lee when he states no one, "Can ever dissever my soul from the soul/ Of the beautiful Annabel Lee"(Poe ll. 32-33). They both write about finding true love, and never giving their hearts to another. As Joshua Brundige points out about Poe's Annabell "her physical body may be gone, but their love is so strong that he will always be connected to her"(Brundige, "Romanticism in Kirkland or Poe"). I think Poe's poem and Travis's song share many similarities, neither of them can imagine themselves ever letting go of the love they know for these women, they will love them until they breathe their last. 

The second song that I'm positive Poe would have put on his iPod is "The Noose" performed by A Perfect Circle. The reason I feel Poe would have been attracted to this song is its' eerie sound. Upon hearing it for the first time, I was instantly reminded of Poe's "The Raven". I could immediately picture this song being played in the background on Halloween while reading Poe's poem. Beyond that, I think that the lyrics in "The Noose" have very vivid imagery, much like that in "The Raven". In "The Noose" they sing "Your halo slippin' down/ Your halo slippin' down to choke you now"(Maynard). They took something pure, a halo, and turned it into an unintentional weapon of death. Poe incorporated such imagery into his poem when he writes "To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core"(Poe l. 74). Both the poem and the song use such strong adjectives to get their dark point across, its almost hard to read the words off the page at times, because they have done such a good job of forcing the image of their message into your brain. I think that Poe would have definitely appreciated the creative darkness that went into the lyrics of this song.

I do not think that Phyllis Wheatley and Edgar Allan Poe would be switching iPods with each other anytime soon. Wheatley would tend toward the more "girl power" tracks, and the songs with a strong political message. She was a woman with a mission, who carefully thought out what she was going to say before she spread it to the masses, and made sure that what she was saying was making a difference. Poe, on the other hand, had a romantic side, but I believe his iPod would mostly consist of what I refer to as "headbanger" music. While he would tap his toe to a catchy bluegrass tune once in a while, I think he would bask in the darkness of rock. I chose to write about these two, because they were so drastically different. I love Wheatley's honesty and mission. I admire Poe's elusiveness and creativity. I don't think they would necessarily like each other's taste in music, but opposites attract, so they might have made great soulmates or something...