The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
This groundbreaking new collection of Poe’s works, The Raven: Tales and Poems, stunned readers, perplexed critics, and defied convention. This collection of Poe’s writings exemplifies his extraordinary strength and imagination as he explored the deepest recesses of the human psyche. The titular narrative poem, which is arguably Poe’s best-known composition, depicts a man’s terrible decline into madness following the death of a lover.
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
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The loss of his closest friend Lenore causes the young scholar in Edgar Allen Poe’s (1809–1849) “The Raven” to experience a bizarre tension between being able to let go of his sorrow and at the same time surrounding himself with nostalgia. He tries to connect with the raven he believes to be his friend but is unable, driving him nuts. The poem is excellent, and reading it as a narrative poem will help you comprehend it fully. The intensity of each stanza is similar to that of a song, but the overall pattern is consistently narrative. The transition of human feeling, otherworldly images, and death keeps the reader spellbound, as does the utilization of dramatic, melodic, and symbolic features.
“The Raven” is paced somewhat slowly for a poem because Poe uses alliteration frequently to draw the reader into the narrative. This draws the reader in because he creates a situation where everyone can relate to feeling down about something and quickly getting sidetracked by something else, and for that fleeting moment, they stop thinking about what they were sad about. The character progression of the scholar from grief to sadness and into madness can be seen. Last but not least, the narrator’s descent into lunacy, which really demonstrates Poe’s masterful use of creative writing and planning, is marked by the raven’s consistent response of “nevermore,” which drives the narrator to the point where he is shouting at the bird.
Many of the poem’s lines have deep supernatural symbolism, which is another excellent feature that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat the entire time.
Due to its short length and excellent use of alliteration to maintain the mood, I think this narrative works better as a poem. If William Shakespeare had been transported to the 1800s and started speaking American, Edgar Allen Poe’s vocabulary and word choice would be similar. I would highly suggest this poem and author to everyone!
