Melissa Yearwood, Student Work, Poetry Garment

For this project I was inspired by a 19th century poem, Spirits of The Dead by Edgar Allen Poe. I wanted the garment to resemble a mourning dress from the 19th century because the poem is about death and loss. I also made a paper mache death mask. I used black because this color is associated with mourning. I also added gold accents to symbolize the beauty Poe saw in death. This project is made entirely out of paper and paint with some staples and tape to hold it all together.

Thy soul shall find itself alone

’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone—

Not one, of all the crowd, to pry

Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,

   Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead who stood

   In life before thee are again

In death around thee—and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

The night, tho’ clear, shall frown—

And the stars shall look not down

From their high thrones in the heaven,

With light like Hope to mortals given—

But their red orbs, without beam,

To thy weariness shall seem

As a burning and a fever

Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,

Now are visions ne’er to vanish;

From thy spirit shall they pass

No more—like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze—the breath of God—is still—

And the mist upon the hill,

Shadowy—shadowy—yet unbroken,

Is a symbol and a token—

How it hangs upon the trees,

A mystery of mysteries!