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Poetry, like many art forms (music, dance, painting) inspires moods
and emotions. Throughout Tennessee Williams’ life, he read the poetry of
Edgar Allan Poe,
Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, D.H.
Lawrence, and Hart
Crane (In fact, he was known to carry a worn out copy of Crane’s poetry
everywhere). Below are some examples of poetry that inspired Tennessee
Williams throughout the writing of A Streetcar Named Desire.
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After asking Stella “What on earth are you doing in a place like
this?” Blanche claims that “Only Mr. Edgar Allan Poe - could do it justice!
Out there, I suppose, is the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.” This reference
comes from Poe’s poem entitled Ulalume
-a piece that highlights Poe’s macabre style of writing.
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Mitch owns a silver cigarette case given to him by a former lover.
The inscription reads: “And if God choose, I shall but love thee better
after death.” This quote, as Blanche recalls, comes from Elizabeth
Barrrett Browning’s Sonnet
43 . What significance do you think it has? |
Throughout the play, we witness the world of reality
in which Stella and Stanley live and Blanche's world of broken illusion.
Hart Crane, captures the feeling of Blanche’s world in his poem The
Broken Tower:
... And so it was I entered the broken world
To trace the visionary company of love, its voice
An instant in the wind (I know not whither hurled)
But not for long to hold each desperate choice.
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