A first!

Longtime readers will know that I occasionally note the fact that I get quite a few search-engine hits based on the poems on which I used to do "Poetical Excursions" (and I really should do more -- add that to the List o' Stuff for the New Year). By far the biggest draw seems to be Poe's "Annabel Lee", which pleases me because it's my favorite poem. I always figured that many of those search-engine hits were from students doing their homework, and yesterday I received confirmation thereof: a student actually e-mailed me to ask permission to use my post on "Annabel Lee" in his classwork. That's the first time this has ever happened.

Not that I'm overly disturbed by the fact that no one else has ever e-mailed me about it, because for the most part I don't mind if people use my stuff here as long as they credit it properly, which in turn I have no way of confirming in any event. But it's cool that someone thought to ask.

(BTW, if any other students read this, it's been a while since I gave my standard disclaimer on such things: I am no scholar. I'm a guy writing a weblog. It's entirely possible that the insights that seem profound to me on poetical matters are, in fact, sophomoric and shallow. Also, in general I will almost never comment on a poem's technical aspects of rhyme scheme, scansion, meter, form, and whatnot. My approach to poetry is based on an overall "grokking" of the poet's "vibe". I can do that, because I don't have some teacher telling me to evaluate a poem's structure. Keep that in mind.)