Edgar Allen Poe the Raven
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 keys 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 its 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