Edgar allan poe and the raven
Edgar allan poe and the raven“Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before.”
The writer of these words was enchanted by darkness...thrilled by death.
What sort of person would spend their whole life linking hands with Death
and her counterparts? Quite possibly a literary genius by the name of Edgar
Allan Poe. Famous for romanticizing the darker, more Gothic side of life, E.
A. Poe had quite a collection of works from his lesser known stories to his
most famous poem, “The Raven”. This great man’s life has been analyzed to
death (no pun intended) to find key’s to unlock the maze of his apparent
creativity. Here, the reader will find only an in depth look at “The Raven”,
information on the author’s life and lifestyle, a brief look at other Poe
works, criticism on his writings, and some unusual ways his fame has been
honored . To begin with, “The Raven” holds a dark sense of elegance which
has been appealing to many since it was written in 1845.
The theme of “The Raven” is simple: a man suffering the loss of his
love is visited by a speaking raven, whose repetitious, meaningless answers
torture him to the point of insanity (see Appendix R) (Decoder, Internet).
The feeling of lost love portrayed in the poem might have reflected the
death of Poe’s wife, Virginia, in 1847 (Qrisse, Internet). As it is read, a
definite rhyme scheme is present: internal rhyme in the first and third line,
and end rhymes in lines two, four, and five. All eighteen stanzas of the poem
are arranged like this, but Poe never makes it seems unexciting or
repetitious. Probably the most noticeable and most brilliant aspect of “The
Raven” is it’s saturation of symbolism. The raven (see Appendix R) itself is
the main symbol, representing the man’s self-torture uncovered in the work.
Because the raven does not comprehend or reason it’s answers, it allows the
man to interpret them however his mind allows, which gives the reader a look
at the mind’s unstable mind state. The bust of Pallas that the raven perches
upon to preach its “wisdom” is another strong symbol. Pallas is the goddess
of wisdom, and an eerie feeling is felt as the raven sits upon it and appears
to speak nonsense. When questioned about his reasoning for using the bust
of Pallas in his poem, Poe replied because of the “sonorous of the word,
Pallas, itself.” Two other symbols that are not so apparent are the use of
“midnight” and “December”. Both signify darkness, an end, or a change to
something new. The chamber the narrator speaks from could be interpreted
as a symbol, as it represents loneliness. The expensive furnishings of the
chamber appear to say that the beauty and riches the man surrounds
himself in will not replace his love (Qrisse, Internet)....
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