Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven

"The Raven" is believed to be Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem for reasons that are unseen to me. "The Raven" seems to be very similar to many of his other poems. The narrator is mourning over the death of his love, in this case her name was "Lenore". "For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore- Nameless here for evermore"("Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven."). This part of the poem tells me that she has died. The death of a woman seems to be a consistent factor in many of his poems. In class we read a poem about Annabelle Lee. The entire poem was about a man sitting on the sea thinking about his Annabelle Lee. The poems are all very sad to read because the reader does not want someone to lose the love of their life but I think that Poe was a very depressing writer. I do not know if anything similar to what he wrote about happened to him in his lifetime but I think that it is very possible that it did. That is the only reason I can think of for someone of great literature capability to devote his time to writing about despair.

The poem "The Raven" shows many characteristics from both the Romanticism period and the Dark Romanticism period. Romanticism characteristics are vast in nature but the one I felt was present many times in this poem was emotion."Unlike the Neoclassical age which focused on rationality and intellect, Romanticism placed human emotions, feelings, instinct and intuition above everything else. While the poets in the former era adhered to the rules and regulations while selecting a subject and writing about it, the Romantic writers trusted their emotions and feelings to create poetry"(Kartha paragraph 4) Emotions play a very big factor in "The Raven". I do not know if there is anything that shows more emotion than a narrator describing the loss of his wife or lover, like it does in this poem by Edgar Allan Poe. "sorrow for the lost Lenore" tells me that the narrator is grieving over the loss of his Lenore and this is an emotional statement.

Dark Romanticism writing focuses on different characteristics than Romanticism writing."Dark Romanticism authors often preferred writing tales of horror and terror"(Nair paragraph 3). This statement fits all of Poe's writing perfectly. As stated in the first paragraph, all of Poe's works that I have read contain someone dying and someone grieving over that person. This poem is no different in that the narrator is grieving the death of his Lenore.

The thing that I did not enjoy about this poem was that he used the same words to end a stanza or phrase just so that it would rhyme and it seems that others agree with me."Literary critics focused attention, instead, on technical concerns of verse, such as parallelism, internal rhyme, and what were termed inconsistencies or absurdities in Poe's imagery, including his reference to angelic creatures whose “foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor”("Edgar Allan Poe The Raven Criticism"). I could write a poem using the same words to rhyme but you don't see me becoming famous do you. I really do not see the big deal over his writings. Poe just seemed like a depressed man who wrote his feelings down.

Nair, Tulika. "Dark Romanticism." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

Kartha, Deepa. "Romanticism: Characteristics of Romanticism." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

"Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven." Heise Online | IT-News, C't, IX, Technology Review, Telepolis. 4 Oct. 2007. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.

"Edgar Allan Poe The Raven Criticism." ENotes - Literature Study Guides, Lesson Plans, and More. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.