I lost the original paper. There was a fourth discussion of the poem from a logical perspective, but it is unfortunately gone. Too bad: it was the best one. I was pressed for time while writing these, which is why they suck. The mythic view of "The Raven" is cut short, and I'm sorry for it, but oh well.
English I
2nd period
5-22-02
Nadia Rundlett
THE RAVEN- LITERARILY
“Once upon a midnight dreary”. In the first five words of his infamous poem “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe gives us the time of his setting- midnight. In the same stanza we discover he is reading “curious volume(s) of forgotten lore” in his chamber, or room. Through only four lines, Poe gives us the entire setting of his work.
The narration is first person central from the point of veiw of a young man who is grieving for a woman named Lenore, and subsequently throwing himself into his work, as shown in the second stanza. The poem follows what appears to be the narrator’s descent into insanity following the appearance (or imagined appearance) of a raven. He eventually becomes enraged at the creature, whom he thinks is sent from God to make him forget Lenore.
The events of the poem occur linearly, both in the actual actions and the reactions in the narrator’s mind, though the only significant occurance not in the narrator’s mind is the arrival of the bird. The speaker travels a straight line to madness, with pauses in sociability with a possibly imaginary bird, anger, and finally depression with a stopover in Boston (just kidding).
THE RAVEN- RHETORICALLY
There is rhetoric in everything, and much in “The Raven”, but this paper would like to focus on personification and apostrophe.
As early as the second stanza, non-human pbjects are taking on minor human qualities and actions. In the eighth line of the poem, embers “die” (fair enough) and cast their ghosts upon the floor, a fitting image for a poem in which everything fixates on loss, death, and grief. Even the curtains in line 13 (natch!) are sad.
The raven’s arrival in the seventh stanza is marked by his characteristically human behavior, which the speaker describes as “with mien (manner) of lord or lady”. The rest of the poem is the narrator’s rather one-sided conversation with the raven, who may or may not be real.
The insane have a history of talking to imaginary non-humans.
THE RAVEN- MYTHICALLY
Our narrator’s insanity goes full circle in this poem, modeling the mythical heroic cycle which looks something like this:
[insert crappy, poorly inked diagram of the heroic cycle]
Ignore that illustration. I forget what it looks like. Anyway
The poet starts off grieving for Lenore by himself with his books. With the arrival of the raven, his world changes and in the ensuing eleven verses goes from a faint reprise from grief and a polite conversation with the bird to accusations to grief again, but with the bird as company. [Note: this makes no sense to those who are unfamiliar with the heroic cycle and Freytag’s Pyramid]
Our speaker’s guide on this journey was the raven with his limited vocabulary. All the other archetypes were within the poet’s mind, particularly his anima, Lenore.
Return to Nadia’s Book Reviews
Return to Nadia’s Reviews
Return to Something Blue