Tynan Portillo presents, featuring the works of Edgar Allan Poe and the best horror stories from the 19th century. Welcome to The Poe Show podcast. Music and narration by Tynan Portillo.
Today’s episode, A Valentine, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe.
For her this rhyme is penned, whose luminous eyes,
Brightly expressive as the twins of Loeda,
Shall find her own sweet name, that, nestling lies
Upon the page, enwrapped from every reader.
Search narrowly the lines!—they hold a treasure
Divine—a talisman—an amulet
That must be worn at heart. Search well the measure—
The words—the syllables! Do not forget
The trivialest point, or you may lose your labor!
And yet there is in this no Gordian knot
Which one might not undo without a sabre,
If one could merely comprehend the plot.
Enwritten upon the leaf where now are peering
Eyes scintillating soul, there lie perdus
Three eloquent words oft uttered in the hearing
Of poets, by poets—as the name is a poet’s, too.
Its letters, although naturally lying
Like the knight Pinto—Mendez Ferdinando—
Still form a synonym for Truth—Cease trying!
You will not read the riddle, though you do the best you can do.
Hello and welcome back to The Poe Show. I wanted to get in a little bonus episode this month for Valentine’s Day, and I see no other work of Edgar Allan Poe more appropriate than this poem. If you like poetry like this, then follow and subscribe to this podcast, follow on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Bluesky, Instagram, Threads and TikTok. All links available in the description. And if you’d like me to work with you on a voiceover project, you can email poeshowpod@gmail.com or find me listed as a narrator on ACX for Audible.
Any of you that have listened to the episode The Raven - Revisited before, which I hope is most of you because that one is waaayyy better than the first one, already know some trivia that comes with this poem. Edgar Allan Poe wrote this poem about a fellow poet, Frances Sargeant Osgood. And to prove it, you can circle the first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second line, the third of the third and so on. And it spells out Frances Sargeant Osgood. Which is hilarious because the whole poem is challenging the reader to be able to decipher the secret code and figure out who the poem is written to, saying that she shall find her own sweet name written on the page, hidden from all readers.
My wife actually broke down what this poem says into plain English, and I’d like to share her analysis with you. She texted me and said, “I’m writing a poem for someone. Try to figure it out. Look really closely. Now give up. You’ll never figure out who it’s about.” She’s really funny.
Some of you may know of the controversy that this poem started in 1846 as well. After people eventually found out who the poem was for, rumors spread like wildfire that the two poets were having an affair - scandalous gossip indeed, for both of the poets were married! The poets exchanged poems quite often as well. This one poem ended up creating so much tension for the Poes that Edgar would go on to have his life threatened by another poet’s brother (that of Elizabeth F. Ellet), ask his friend for a pistol for self defense, get insulted by his friend, fight his own good friend, and had to deal with rumors of him being clinically insane after Elizabeth Ellet started fanning the flames of gossip once again. I go into more detail in the Raven - Revisited episode, so listen to that episode if you’d like to learn more.
In the context of the time this poem was published, I think we can see what Love will make some of us do. Act crazy. If you’ve ever seen Courage the Cowardly Dog, then you know the famous line, “The things I do for love!”
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Poe Show. Remember to like, share, subscribe to and follow this podcast on any platform that you get your podcasts. Follow on Bluesky at thepoeshow.bsky.social, on TikTok at poeshowpodcast, on Instagram and Threads at thepoeshowpodcast and on YouTube. Support the show using the link below if you like what I do here, and if you’d like me to work with you on a voiceover project, then email poeshowpod@gmail.com with details. I’m also listed as an audiobook narrator on ACX for Audible.
That’s all for now. But you’ll hear from me again on the next episode of The Poe Show.
