Edgar Allen Poe The Raven
BR> I do not know why I never thought to make this poem into a clock. It is the perfect format for my obsession with time and my love of the inner workings of the mind--also my older sister spent much of her junior and high school years reciting this poem. I don't know why. But I do know that it really kind of scared the hell out of me. At that time, I watched a lot of Vincent Price movies and The Twilight Zone so I was predisposed to overreact at thoughts of darkness when combined with alone-ness. (but more so at thoughts of being force fed my own poodle--for you Vincent Price fans) I also knew a little (at the tender age of 10) about self-torture. I was obsessed with not taking showers---which is the only thing that haunts me now---whenever I get a whif of my 10 year old son.
BR> I believe the visuals from my clock are pretty evident if you know the poem--even down to the bust of Palas. That this poem should come to life as a clock seems fitting--"Once upon a midnight dreary". The basic shape of the clock is a door, through which comes the mysterious tapping. "For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore, Nameless here forevermore. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain. Thrilled me---filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before". Within the door is the face of the narrator. Purple with fear, not actually seeing that his lonliness and solitude has caused him to create the horrifc situation, drowning in sorrow over his lost love, Lenore.
BR> I have placed Lenore's corpse (with broken heart) coming out of his face where his mouth should be----a lover's screaming grief. One one side of the image is a raven black angels wing--on the other a single feather from the raven. "Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! -- quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!"
BR> Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."