The Raven, By Edgar Allen Poe

Written by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven” is a famous short poem known for the dark fantasy that it portrays. From the mindset of a first person narrative, one may experience the tale through the eyes of a haunted man who is in mourning for the death of his beloved Lenore. As this man sits in his chamber, within a dark and dreary December night, a “raven of the saintly days of yore” visits him. The raven is no ordinary bird, for it is like a ghost, silent, yet it answers every inquiry the man presents in it’s own personal way. This dark and tragic tale grabs one’s attention through the rhythmic, yet melancholy verses, through the classic references, and through the dark imagery that all play a critical role within this poem.

The aim of this particular essay is to examine and perform an in-depth analysis relating to the theme of madness within the widely-known poem “The Raven,” by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe. We have found the speaker to have endured a quite difficult life thus far, and in return has approached a bird in order to ease his sorrows. These actions ultimately lead us as readers to ponder whether or not this individual is insane, or if the bird’s existence is legitimate, and if so, is he really conversing with the speaker? Within this dissertation, I intend to bring to your attention the plethora of symbols and figurative language that Poe utilizes in order to portray this theme of madness.

Poe's "The Raven" is not only an American classic, it's a favorite of high school students around the world, as well as their teachers. That being said, it's still poetry and therefore can be difficult to understand. Read this summary to review the contents and get a better understanding.

The poem, “The Raven,” written by Edgar Allen Poe shows the deep depression and confusion that the narrator is experiencing since the death of his beloved wife. The gloomy setting of the poem predicts the visit of the Raven, whom is a sign of misfortune, darkness, and death. Throughout the poem, the narrator is continually mourning his wife, Lenore. He secretly hopes that the Raven will bring good news regarding his wife and his future; however, the Raven informs him that he will forever remain depressed. Furthermore, Poe uses setting, strong word choice, and symbolism to illustrate the Raven as the messenger of darkness and explain the narrator’s emotional state.

Many students wonder what the reason is behind analyzing literature. Analyzing literature can be complicated and seem like a puzzle that cannot be solved. There is an underlying type of art when one finally learns and understands the meaning of short stories or poems. “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven” are two different poems written by Edgar Allen Poe. Now, one might ask why it should be important to know how to read and analyze literature. If one can learn how to read and analyze literature than they can learn how poets like Edgar Allen Poe have an underlying argument or meaning to the art of their writing. The next question one might have is, well why or how can that meaning be applied to my everyday life? Edgar Allen Poe’s writing is so cleverly crafted that his underlying meaning has an impact on human life itself in regards to values and morality. In this literature analysis paper we will discuss how two completely different poems have similarities in the literary element of theme.

The series of unfortunate events that Edgar Allan Poe experienced in his lifetime are what influenced his writing. His poetry heavily reflects the built-up emotions that he carried within himself. He repeatedly dealt with loss, rejection, and poverty throughout his entire life. When his wife, Virginia, was deathly ill, Poe wrote his poem, “The Raven”, in which the reader can observe the speaker slowly fall into madness while grieving the death of his love, similar to Poe’s own experiences.

The author of The Raven is Edgar Allen Poe. When I read The Raven it was very spooky and suspicious. It kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time. Edgar Allen Poe grabbed my attention immediately when he began to describe the setting of the poem. He uses the words "weak and weary" to describe how he was feeling that night. In the next stanza he starts to become a little weird when he says that "rustling of each purple curtain" thrilled him and filled him with "fantastic terrors never felt before". The next four stanzas the poem starts to become super suspenseful and creepy. He hears something at the door and he assumes it's a visitor. Eventually he goes to open the door and no one is there, he just looks into the dark. A raven flies in

Although now seen as the father of the modern horror story, Edgar Allan Poe was previously viewed as a drunken failure. Within Poe’s writings much of his own life riddled with guilt, anxiety, alcohol, depression and death shines through resulting in works that appear unrelated yet once dissected prove similar. This is true for Poe’s works “The Raven” and “The Black Cat”. Poe’s examples of gothic fiction share the use of the color black and a rapid digression of the narrator 's sanity while seemingly unveiling Poe’s internal pain. Despite these similarities, Poe’s works also differ immensely. “The Black Cat” focuses around death while “The Raven” is fixed around discovering the reasoning for a bird 's arrival. Moreover, gothic themes seen within “The Raven” do not necessarily remain constant when compared to “The Black Cat”.

Literature does not have to have the vivid physical reality, actually, not using it leaves the opportunity for the reader to picture everything themselves, and Edgar Allen Poe will prove me right with his poem, The Raven. Poes poem does not use the harsh details the prompt is stating we need.

I first learned of Edgar Allan Poe through his poem “The Raven”. I did not actually read the poem, but found out that it was the inspiration for the football team, the Baltimore Ravens. I found it interesting at a young age how a mere poem could influence an entire city. Poe’s literature crossed boundaries and was admired by many.

Poetry is a way of expressing one’s emotions on a certain person, place, or thing. Many poets throughout generations expressed these emotions in phenomenal ways. However, one poet exceeded all expectations and thoughts on poetry. His name is Edgar Allan Poe. He brought a lot more to the scene than just poetry, and that is what he is well known for. His poetry was more than just writing; they were dark stories that somehow resembled to him in some way. He wrote great works such as, “Eldorado”, “A Dream”, and “Alone.” All of those poems are great, but there is two that stand out far greater than all of them: “Annabel Lee” and “The Raven.” They share a similar story-line, but different popularity responses. Even though "Annabel Lee" has a more appealing story, "The Raven" is a well known classic poem because it is considered to be the best poem ever written and one of the most reprinted poems recorded in history.

Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston. His parents Elizabeth and David Poe were both actors that travelled. Soon after the birth of Edgar’s sister, David abandoned them. Shortly after that, Elizabeth died of tuberculosis. Poe was taken in by Frances and John Allan. Poe then went to college, and got in $2000 debt in gambling.This lead to him leaving college and the Allans. Poe then enlisted in the army under a fake name. In 1835 Poe took a job as a magazine editor. On May 16, 1836 Poe married his thirteen year old cousin, Virginia Clemm. She dies shortly, because of an illness. Poe’s troubled childhood led him to write Gothic stories. His first novel was published, July 1848. His career as a writer was not the most successful in the beginning. However, he became the leading author of gothic fiction.

In Studies in Classic American Literature, D.H. Lawrence condemns Americans for dodging their true selves by means of intellectualization and idealization. Both Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Black Cat” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” feature allegorical representations of characters deceiving themselves in order to deny the darker aspects of their inner selves. In Poe’s “The Black Cat,” the narrator denies the darker aspects of his soul by abstracting his horrific actions with spectral evidence in order to externalize the psychological effects of his guilt. In his allegorical tale “Young Goodman Brown,” Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan doctrine of grace in his depiction of the self-deception Lawrence condemns; both

In the poem, “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe shows how the mind can deceive man when under stress. The narrator, presumes to be Guy De Vere from the poem “Lenore”, shows signs of depression, fear, and loneliness. When a raven appears, Guy De Vere associates this as a sign to Lenore, his lover, who passed away years before. Considering Guy De Vere already suffers from depression, fear, and loneliness, the presence of the raven causes his mind to deceive him and causes him to go mad.

In 1845, “The Raven,” by Edgar Allan Poe’s poem, is “ the most famous poem in American literature” (Peeples). Poe today is known “as a major literary figure, a master of Gothic atmosphere and interior monologue.” He went through much in his lifetime, witnessed the death and sickness of many loved ones. Also, he was rejected by both his father and stepfather and lost many jobs for obsessive drinking causing the development of various phobias and paranoia. Poe’s works show a clear resemblance to his life and the experiences that Poe possesses (Napierkowski and Ruby 201). “‘The Raven’ has come to more or less define Poe’s image in popular culture” (Peeples). Poe's poem, “The Raven” exhibits the theme of nature representing discomfort and loneliness while emphasizing death and the supernatural world.