Resear h paper on The Raven y Edgar Allan

Poe

Introduction to Literary Studies I

Supervisor: Dr. Ulla Kriebernegg

Dennis Masser
Student number: 1431273
Field of study: English and American studies
E-mail address: dennis.masser@edu.uni-graz.at

September 1, 2016
Contents
Resear h paper on The Raven y Edgar Allan Poe .................................................................... 1

1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3

2. About the Author................................................................................................................... 4

3. American and Dark Romanticism ......................................................................................... 6

4. Analysis of the poem – Introduction ..................................................................................... 7

a. Contents and plot summary ............................................................................................... 7

5. Structure ................................................................................................................................ 8

a. Meter ................................................................................................................................. 8

b. Rhyme and repetition ........................................................................................................ 9

c. Notable Poetic structures ................................................................................................. 11

6. Interpretation ....................................................................................................................... 13

7. Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 15

8. Works cited: ........................................................................................................................ 16

Essays: ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Poetry: ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Online: ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Books: ..................................................................................................................................... 18

9. Declaration of Honesty........................................................................................................ 19

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 1. Introduction

The Raven, which was written in 1845, is one of the best-known works of American
literature. This dark romantic tale has been interpreted and discussed a countless
number of times. Various theories and myths surround the poem, including questions
such as whether or not the eponymous raven is the devil or whether Poe foresaw his
wife’s death in 1847 and his own untimely death two years later.
Poe himself is a man of mystery and myth. Some claim that he died from rabies,
others assume his death was the result of a plot against him and his literary criticism.
His own magnum opus, The Raven brought him fame even when he was alive, yet it
brought him no fortune. He intended to create the perfect poem by including a number
of interesting concepts and ideas in it, such as Poe’s claim that the number of lines, 108,
is the perfect length and that the ‘or’-Sound, which is heavily featured, is the most
desirable sound to use when writing a poem because of its sonorous and powerful
sound. Poe himself even wrote an essay entitled The Philosophy of Composition in 1846
in which he explains these thoughts and ideas.
Poe’s literary work has inspired dozens of other authors, musicians and movie
directors. He is now best remembered as the originator of the detective story genre as
well as a versatile author, writing macabre and dark stories such as The Black Cat, but
also penning sweet and romantic poems such as Eulalie. His life was one riddled with
death and poverty, but it also had happy aspects such as Poe’s very happy marriage and
his fame that allowed him to live on his literary works alone, something that was
unheard of before.
I will conduct a formal analysis of The Raven, note its most dominant and
noteworthy literary structures and will write an interpretation that, admittedly, might not
be too common in its approach. Before I do all of this however, I will write a biography
about Edgar Allan Poe’s life, spare a few words on American Romanticism and
summarize the poem’s contents. I hope I can do this literary masterpiece justice.

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 2. About the Author

Edgar Allan Poe, née Edgar Poe, was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston to two actors.
Within the first two years of his life, he became an orphan. Subsequently, the infant was
taken in by one John Allan, a tradesman. Though he was never officially adopted, he
adopted his foster father’s surname as his middle name.
In 1815, at age six, Allan enabled Poe to basic education in England with the aim of
grooming Edgar to step into his position after his death, but the young boy had no
intention of becoming a merchant.
When he returned to the US in 1826, Edgar received further education when he
registered at the University of Virginia, which at this point was merely a year old. Edgar
soon accumulated immense debts from gambling. He also became estranged to his
foster family and his sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. In 1827, he dropped out of
University and made way to Boston, where he began to write under the pseudonym of
Henri Le Rennet.
Even though he continued to write, he could not sustain himself. To come into
money, Poe enlisted into the army in 1827. Over the two years, he served he published
his first collection of poems, called Tamerlane and Other Poems.
After he was discharged in April 1829, Poe moved to Baltimore to stay with his
aunt, brother, grandmother and first cousin, who should become his love interest. While
staying in Baltimore, he published his second collection of poems. Also in 1829, Poe
applies to West Point, a naval base with support from John Allan.
In 1831, Poe was dishonorably discharged from the navy and in February of the
same year, he left for New York, where he published a third volume of poems. His
brother’s death in 1831 sparked his renowned fascination for the macabre and death,
and so he channeled his efforts of becoming a prolific writer.
1835 brought new hope to his life. One of his short stories netted him a job as an
editor at a local newspaper and in 1836 he married his cousin, Virginia. Yet, in 1836, he
left because he felt he was underpaid. He went back to New York where he did not find
any financial success before moving onwards to Philadelphia in 1837 where he
published his first collection of short stories, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.
While he did receive copyright and some copies of it, he did not gain any money. In this
year he also published his best-known short story, The Fall of the House of Usher.
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 After sustaining himself with publications in magazines for a while, in 1840 he
joined one George R. Graham and became an editor for his magazine. He worked for
Graham for two years before leaving the company with the aim of starting his own
magazine. During these two years, he also made his debut as an author of detective
stories, the first of which was called The Murders in the Rue Morgue.
His plans to start a new magazine failed and he was without steady income once
more. While he did sell some booklets in which he published additional short stories
and had some of his them printed in magazines, he did not make enough money to
sustain himself or his family. His story The Gold Bug won him some money and was
reprinted in larger numbers, but in the end, he had to borrow money from relatives and
friends often.
1845 brought about a new job as an editor at a journal that lasted for roughly a year.
It was this year that he released The Raven, which was an instant success and made his
name known to everybody. However, Poe could not afford his life in Richmond
anymore and moved to a cottage near modern day 192nd street, New York. His wife’s
health now quickly deteriorated after she had contracted tuberculosis in 1842 and Poe
grew depressed over it. Virginia Poe died in 1847, and he now more than ever sought
solace in alcohol. However, after a mental breakdown, he could recover some of this
strength and over the next months.
In the summer of 1849, he ventured to Philadelphia to visit a friend before he
traveled further and once more returned to Richmond, Baltimore. Here, he joined a club
known as “The Sons of Temperance” in a futile attempt to quit drinking. In the same
year, he also rekindled his romance with Sarah Royster Shelton, his sweetheart from
adolescence.
At the end of September 1849, he began his final journey and was headed to New
York again. He switched trains in Philadelphia but accidentally took the wrong train,
one that headed to Baltimore, the town in which he was born. On October 3rd, he was
found at a public house and taken to the hospital after he was found barely conscious.
On October 7th, Edgar Allan Poe died under mysterious circumstances, unable to
explain what had happened to him that lead to his fate (cf. Silvermann 2000;
Biography.com 2016).

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 3. American and Dark Romanticism

Dark Romanticism was a movement that combined a pessimistic view on

transcendentalism with certain aspects of American romantic literature. Furthermore,
Dark romanticism dealt with complex topics such as madness and the effects of sin and
guilt on the human mind and overall dark topics; in general, this movement was a form
of rebellion against transcendentalism (cf. New World Encyclopedia, 2015).
Transcendentalism was a movement which sparked in but diverged from the
Unitarian Church and claimed that “the soul of each individual is identical with the soul
of the world and contains what the world contains” (Campbell, 1997/2010, Washington
State University).
American Romanticism, also known as American Renaissance, aimed to establish
America as a nation with its own literature that was independent of the European
writers. American Romanticism took place after the civil war, in a time of great
expansion and drastic industrial improvements, but it also was a time that discussed
glaring social issues, such as slavery (cf. Holman Harmon, 1991).
In terms of literary content, American Romanticism takes a lot of inspiration from
the idea of an inherent human goodness and the belief that everyone should have a
chance and be self-reliant. Romanticism also was linked to transcendentalism described
above thanks to works by Henry David Thoreau, who celebrated naturalism and
individualism. The power of imagination and emotions, oftentimes escapism as well,
are also omnipresent aspects of American romantic literature.
The idea of the wilderness and the frontier plays a large role in the literature of this
time as well. Nature gives freedom in contrast to the oppressiveness of industrial areas
and the frontier opens up a lot of opportunities for one’s life. American Romanticism
was also an era of the belief that everyday situations can be divine. Interestingly,
especially in this aspects, authors were not afraid to openly criticize present norms and
various aspects of social life being taken for granted (cf. Zappia, n.d., Seattle Post-
Intelligencer).

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 4. Analysis of the poem – Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe thought of The Raven as the template for the perfect poem; in his mind
and according to the aforementioned essay he wrote about the topic of the construction
of the poem, length is an important factor to a poem – in fact, it is essential that a poem
can be read in one sitting, because if it cannot, the magic of reading poetry will vanish.
He also states that there has to be a direct ratio between length and the intensity and
effect of the poem. After he took these things into consideration, he chose around a
hundred lines to be the optimal length for the purpose of the poem The Raven. In the
end, Poe wrote a hundred and eight.
In regards to the refrain, the ongoing repetition of the word ‘nevermore’, Poe states
that the long ‘o’-sound is the most sonorous vowel sound and pairs excellently with the
‘r’-sound since, according to him, it is the most variable consonant. He also states he
chose the word ‘nevermore’ to reflect the general mood and topic of melancholy that
The Raven is based on.
Another thing to bear in mind is that Lenore, the lady that the character in the poem
lost, represents Poe’s idea of the most poetical topic in the world – the death of a young
woman (cf. Poe, 1846: 3-5).
With all these things in mind, I shall now create a formal analysis of this poem and
bring attention to its meter, rhyme, and other important literary aspects as well as
interpret it.

a. Contents and plot summary

The poem The Raven tells the story of a lonesome man sitting in his bedroom, reading
in ancient books late at night. The tiredness begins to creep into him when he thinks he
hears someone – or something – knocking at his door. At first he thinks it to be the wind
but when the knocking becomes more intense, the man stands up and opens the door to
his room, only to find no one standing there. He stands at the open door for a while,
staring into the darkness lying before him and hears and sees nothing besides the name
of his lost love, Lenore, being whispered, presumably by the wind.
When he turns around and goes back into his chamber, he hears a knocking on the
window. He opens it, and a raven steps in. At first, the raven amuses him, but when he
begins to question the bird, the bird can only answer with “nevermore”. Soon, the man
7
wishes the bird to disappear from his room, but the bird continued to sit above his door
and the man grows increasingly mad because the bird does nothing besides staring at
him and croaking the word “nevermore”. The man soon starts to think that the bird is
the devil himself, who has come to him to torment him in his grief over Lenore. He falls
into a rage and starts yelling at the bird before all of a sudden, he collapses and the bird
is still sitting above his door (cf. Poe, 1846).
The story is told in first person, implying an explicit subjectivity. One side effect of
this is that the narrator is rather unreliable, which is one of Poe’s trademarks (see also:
The Fall of the House of Usher). Interestingly, the subjectively explicit narrator
(signaled by use of words such as ‘my’ in the penultimate line) does not per se “speak”
to the reader, he converses with the reader. Also, assuming the narrator died, or at least
collapsed, from distress or a heart attack that he suffered in his rage, it is quite unclear
in which form he tells the story. Is the narrator a ghost? Or did he merely tell someone
of a dream? After all, it is not particularly rare to have nightmares about one’s own
death without really dying (cf. IASD, 2013).
Befittingly, the mood of the poem is quite dark and sinister; however, it also has a
slightly ironic note to it, as line one begins with “once upon”, which is usually the start
of classic fairy tales, a genre of literature that is romantic and often features love and
hope, princesses and knights in shining armor as main topics.

5. Structure

a. Meter

The Raven has six lines per Stanza; since this poem is made up of a hundred and eight
lines, there are eighteen Stanzas. Line one and three of each Stanza feature a trochaic
octameter each. In theory, lines two, four and five feature a trochaic octameter as well,
however, the unstressed syllable is not present at the end of the line; one could say this
is trochee with seven and a half repetitions. Line six, the line containing the refrain,
features a trochee with three and a half repetitions. (cf. Poe, 1846:3-5).
Those “unfinished” trochees may also be called “degenerated” or “monosyllabic”
feet (cf. Hayes, 1995:102). A line containing such a “degenerated” foot is called a
catalectic line (cf. Oxford Dictionary n.d.). To give a concrete idea of what a
8
“degenerated” foot in the Raven looks like, the words ‘lore’ and ‘door’ at the end of
lines two and four/five of the first stanza consist of only one syllable, which makes
them monosyllabic.
Interestingly, the first stanza breaks the meter in the second line, as there are
seventeen feet, or eight and a half repetitions trochaic repetitions. The second stanza
also does not utterly abide Poe’s own rules as there are sixteen syllables in the second
line, instead of fifteen, which are eight trochaic repetitions. Starting with the third one,
all stanzas feature fifteen syllables in line two, four and five. To compare, I scanned the
first, second and third stanza. The stressed syllables are printed in bold and underlined.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered “tapping at my chamber door-
Only this and nothing more

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -
This it is, and nothing more,'

b. Rhyme and repetition

In general, the rhyme of each stanza is ABCBBBB. The first and third lines do not
rhyme with each other while lines two, four, five and six do rhyme with each other.
Lines four and five do rhyme by repeating the same word at the end, which is a so-
called identical rhyme. For example, lines four and five of the first stanza both close
with the word ‘door’. In most cases, such as the one exemplified below, the rhyme not
only concerns the same word but a repetition of the same part at the end a line, which is
called epiphora.

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 Another interesting aspect of the rhyme scheme of “The Raven” is that, while they
feature no rhyme at the end of the line, lines one and three of each stanza do feature
internal rhymes. An internal rhyme is, as the name suggests, a rhyme that happens
within the line itself rather than at the end of two or more successive lines (cf. Nünning
2014:57-61).
Additionally, line four of each stanza features a word that (internally) rhymes with
the rhyming words in line three. Occasionally, this applies to line five as well. To give
concrete examples, below is the first stanza with all the rhymes applicable to it. While
there are some derivations in the other stanzas, they are not particularly noteworthy and
in general, do not change the manners of which rhyme is applied to the poem. Standard
end-rhymes will be highlighted in italics, internal rhymes will be bold and rhymes via
repetition will be underlined.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered “tapping at my chamber door-
Only this and nothing more

Special note has to go to lines three and four of stanza six and lines three, four and five
of the seventh stanza. In these lines, Poe shows his utter mastery of rhyme. These lines
do not use a standard, full rhyme (such as napping/tapping/rapping) as an internal
rhyme, but instead, make use of the somewhat rare mosaic rhyme. A mosaic rhyme is a
rhyme, where the rhyming words are split into more than one word (cf. Nünning 2014:
58). For some reason, Poe chose not to employ a mosaic rhyme in the internal rhyme in
the first line.
Additionally, I shall highlight even more kinds of rhyme as well in this example.
There is the so-called anaphora, the counterpart to the epiphora. An anaphora describes
the use of the same word or phrase at the beginning of a line. Additionally, Poe also
made use of the epanalepsis, which is the repetition of a word immediately or after only
a few words (cf. Nünning 2014: 61).
I will highlight mosaic rhymes in these two stanzas by printing them bold while
underlining epanalepsis and printing epiphoras in italics.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
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 `Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -
'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -
Perched, and sat, and nothing more

c. Notable Poetic structures

The Raven is ripe with poetic structures. Both Poe’s style of writing and the poem’s
length combine into an abundance of alliterations, various kinds of repetitions,
assonances and more. All of these structures make for an interesting, fluid yet somewhat
demanding read since not all instances instantly reveal their function.
An example for an instance where the function is obvious however is the
consonance in line one of stanza three: “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each
purple curtain”. As highlighted, a consonance is when the same consonant sound is
present in successive words or syllables. In this case, the consonance serves to imitate
the rustling of the curtain itself, if wind was to blow through it. By, admittedly, a long
stretch, this could also count as onomatopoeia, which is the term for when words are
used to imitate sounds.
As for alliterations and assonances, there is almost no Stanza without at least one
instance of this structure. As will be evidenced by the example below, an alliteration is
related to the consonance described above, with the main difference being that an
alliteration only applies to the first sound of each consecutive word or syllable. Another
close relative to the alliteration and consonance is the assonance, in which a sound, be it
a vowel or consonant, is present in successive words, regardless of its position.
In the following example, alliterations will be highlighted by being bold,
assonances will be underlined and consonances will be in italics.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore-
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered “tapping at my chamber door-
11
 Only this and nothing more.

Poe also used a special kind of repetition, called Polyptoton. A polyptoton refers to the
structure of repeating a word of the same root in various inflections (cf. Nünning 2014:
59-61). For example, he employs this structure in line two of the fifth Stanza
(“Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”) or in line four
of the eleventh Stanza (“Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden
bore)”.
This poem also employs metaphors, similes and personifications. A metaphor and
its relatives, the comparison and the personification (both of which are demonstrated
further down the page) essentially compare two objects. The metaphor does this without
the use of words such as like or as and compares the objects based on a shared trait, the
so-called tertium comparationis. The object that donates the meaning or the idea behind
the metaphor is the vehicle whereas the object that receives that meaning or idea is the
tenor (cf. The Poetry Center, Timpane and Watts 2001:367-369; Nünning 2014:63).
One of the metaphors in this poem is found in stanza 18, line three:

“And his eyes have the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming”

Here, his refers to the raven. Have the seeming of a demon’s means they, his eyes, are
the same as a demon’s. So, Poe uses a metaphor to compare the raven to a demon.
Poe also makes use of direct comparisons (also known as similes). A comparison is
a metaphor that does employ an explicit tertium comparationis. One of them can be
found in line five of the tenth stanza:

“On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'”

“He” refers, again, to the raven. In this line, the narrator hopes that the raven will be
gone by the time of the next morning like hope has left him before.
A personification is a special kind of metaphor and simile. It is employed when
distinctly humanlike characteristics or mannerisms are transcribed onto animals or
innate objects. At the end of each stanza, Poe constantly applies a human characteristic,
the ability to talk, to a raven.

“Quoth the raven, “Nevermore””

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 6. Interpretation

I think the main inspiration for this poem is the sickness of Poe’s wife, Virginia. As I
already mentioned, Virginia Poe contracted tuberculosis in 1842, a disease for which
there was no proper cure in the middle of the 19th century (cf. Harvard University
Library 2016). Thus, Poe could do naught but hopelessly watch as the love of his life
whittled away to a sickness. Of course, her suffering must have caused severe strain on
his psyche, a part of his that certainly was not unaffected by the death he had seen,
either as a soldier in the army or when his brother died. It would be no surprise if Poe
was, by modern standards, clinically depressed when he wrote The Raven.
Why now do I think Poe used this poem to process his wife’s sickness? I will begin
with the strongest arguments to support my theory. First of all, there is the eponymous
raven. Even though these birds are often revered for their intellect and the mysticism
around them, they are carrion eaters and have been associated with death as early as the
first wars of human history when they flew over the battlegrounds to feast on the
corpses of fallen warriors. This association holds especially true for Celtic and Irish
folklore and belief that gods of war would devour the dead while in the form of ravens
(cf. Starovecká, 2010).
Additionally, plague doctors in medieval to post-renaissance Europe wore masks
shaped like beaks and they had to deal with patients infected with some of the most
devastating epidemics of all time (cf. Rosenhek 2011). Due to the shape of the mask,
birds in general but ravens in particular, were also often associated with disease, mainly
because they already had the reputation of being a harbinger of death. Disease and death
are two very closely related topics and since ravens are linked to both of them, these
black birds are -still- often considered bad omens.
To give support to my thesis, I will use six lines from the poem that caused me to
see The Raven as a testimony of Poe’s grief and hopelessness caused by his wife’s
dwindling health.
To begin with, the narrator collapses at the end of the poem; “And my soul from
out that shadow that lies floating on the floor / shall be lifted – nevermore.” (Poe 1845:
107-108). It should be noted that soul does not necessarily only means body or life, but
it can also mean animation or fervor, as in being full of live and being passionate
respectively, if one utilizes a somewhat philosophical point of view (cf. Thesaurus.com

13
n.d.; Oxford Dictionary n.d.). Simply speaking, soul can also mean the drive a person
has to live. When a shadow lies above a soul, the soul is very much in distress. The
shadow can also be a metaphor for hopelessness, and if the shadow cannot be lifted
from the narrator’s soul, he faces an insurmountable depression, which again would be
befitting of Poe’s mental state when he wrote the Poem.
Another set of lines that supports my interpretation are lines nine and ten: “Eagerly
I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow / From my books surcease of
sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore” (Poe 1845:9-10). Here, the narrator tells us of how
he tried to find relief or an escape from his sorrows in his books. Sorrows that stem
from the suffering caused by Lenore’s sickness and that he directly feels. They, of
course, affect him as well. Additionally, he speaks of “sorrow for the lost Lenore”. She
is not dead yet, but the narrator, or rather Poe, knows Lenore, or rather his wife will be
unable to come back to health.
Further support to my interpretation is given by the lines “Is there – is there balm in
Gilead? – tell me, -tell me I implore! / Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.” (Poe 1845: 88-
89). The narrator begs the raven, the omen of death, for an answer if there is a balm, an
ointment, for his soul. One possible cure for his poor soul would be if his love would
recover. Such a wonder, however, would require a special medicine, the balm of Gilead,
also known as Balsam of Mecca (cf. Grieve 1931/1995: also cited in botanical.com).
The Balsam of Mecca is a rare substance from the middle east and was also mentioned
as “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician here? Why then is there no
healing for the wound of my people? ”in the bible (Jeremiah 8:22 New International
Version). Alternatively, one could also see this line as him begging death in the form of
a raven to help his wife. According to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and her (although not
undisputed) model of grief, begging, or rather bargaining is the third of the five stages
of grieving (cf. 1969:72-75).
Tying into the example above, I think the very first two lines of the poem “Once
upon a midnight dreary, while pondered weak and weary / Over many a quaint and
curious volume of forgotten lore” (Poe, 1845: 1-2) would also qualify as support for my
interpretation. This lines could mean that the narrator was brooding up to the point of
exhaustion over tomes of old knowledge. Since he has a bust of Pallas Athene, the
Greek Goddess of wisdom, in his chamber, chances are this character is, or thinks
himself, to be quite knowledgeable or educated. Thus, it could be assumed that he

14
sought for some recipe or hints of some wonder drug, which he could then administer to
Lenore - or himself to help himself over the pain of losing her; see also lines 82 and 83,
where he mentions Nepenthe, a drug that caused forgetfulness (cf. Oxford Dictionary
n.d.)- in this old books.
There are various other lines that might support my thesis, such “Tell this soul with
sorrow laden if, within in the distant Aiden / It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the
angels name Lenore -- / Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore”
(Poe 1845: 93-95), where the narrator asks the raven, in this case the avatar of death,
whether or not Lenore, whom he decorates with the powerful words “sainted” and
“radiant”, is welcomed in Aiden, an alternative spelling of Eden, one of the names for
the Christian paradise. This shows that he worries for her even if she is dead. Going into
detail with each and every line that would aid me in stating my opinion would stretch
this paper too long though, I am afraid.
This last example concludes my interpretation of The Raven.
I am certain that there is some sense behind the idea of The Raven’s narrator being
a self-insert for Poe and Lenore being a fictional portrait of Virginia Poe. Also, as
mentioned above, Lenore is dead already and the narrator laments her death. Virginia,
however, was not yet dead but had contracted a lethal disease that slowly killed her and
Poe could do nothing but watch and lament as his love died.

7. Conclusion

The Raven is a fascinating poem filled with dozens of interesting details which allow
hundreds of different interpretations to be created. Poe’s rich usage of various literary
structures, powerful words, and a dark, gloomy thematic create a masterpiece that is
worthy of the praise it gets. It’s an ironic fairytale, a story of despair.
Yet, it has captivated the minds of readers, critics, students, teachers and other
artists since the day of its publication a hundred and seventy-one years ago. It is
amazing how Poe managed to pack the grief of a man, an unnamed one at that, into a
hundred and eight lines and how he accomplished the feat of making the reader feel
sorry for this poor man. The raven is a great, yet reticent antagonist, doing the narrator
no physical harm yet sending shivers down the reader’s spine with his only word,
‘Nevermore’. A word that has, above all else, become synonymous with one of the
greatest American authors of all time, a man whose life was filled with hardship and
15
death. A man whose life was a story of despair. Poe used this poem to process or even
elevate some of the mental stress he had to endure when his beloved wife Virginia was
suffering from disease and when they had no money to pay the doctors.
Even though The Raven made him a household name, Poe was poor in the last years
of his life, drowning his sorrows of which there were aplenty in alcohol, which may
have played a part in his untimely and mysterious death at the age of forty in 1849. But
his trademark dark writing style, his invention of the genre of the detective story and the
distinction of being the first author to only sustain himself on his mastery of words
make Edgar Allan Poe and The Raven immortal.

8. Works cited:
Essays:
Poe, Edgar Allan (1846, April 4). “The Philosophy of Composition.” Graham’s
Magazine XXVIII. Philadelphia.163:167.

Poetry:
Poe, Edgar Allan (1845, January 29). “The Raven”. In: George Pope Morris and
Nathaniel Parker Willis, eds. New York Evening Mirror. New York City. 4.

Online:
“Animation” (n.d.). Oxford Dictionaries. [Online]. (Oxford University Press).
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de/definition/englisch/animation [2016,
August 30].
Biography.com Editors (2016, April 25). ”Edgar Allan Poe Biography”. Biography.
[Online]. (A&E Television Networks). http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-
allan-poe-9443160 [2016, August 15].
Campbell, Donna M. (2016, August 16). “American Transcendentalism”. Washington
State University. [Online]. http://public.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/amtrans.htm
[2016, August 19].
“Catalectic” (n.d.). Oxford Dictionaries. [Online]. (Oxford University Press).
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de/definition/englisch/catalectic [2016,
August 15].

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“Common Questions about Dreams” (n.d.). International Association for the Study of
Dreams. [Online]. http://www.asdreams.org/subidxeduq_and_a.htm [2016,
August 21].
“Dark Romanticism” (2015, September 10). New World Encyclopedia.[Online]
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dark_romanticism [2016, August
19].
“Fervor” (n.d.). Oxford Dictionaries. [Online]. (Oxford University Press).
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/de/definition/englisch/fervor [2016, August
30].
Grieve, Maud (1931/1995). “Balsam of Gilead“. Botanical.com: A Modern Herbal by
Mrs. M. Grieve. [Online].
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/balofg05.html [2016, August 25].
Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman (n.d.). “On American Romanticism: Definitions
from A Handbook to Literature, Sixth Edition”. Virginia Commonwealth
University. [Online]. http://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/eng372/intro-h4.htm
[2016, August 19].
Rosenhek, Jackie (2011). “Doctors of the Black Death”. Doctor’s Review: Medicine on
the Move. [Online]. http://www.doctorsreview.com/history/doctors-black-death/
[2016, August 24].
Silverman, Kenneth (February 2000). “Poe, Edgar Allan“. American National
Biography Online. [Online]. (Oxford University Press).
http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-01302.html [2016, August 15].
Starovecká Zuzana (2010, October 30). “Ravens and Crows in Mythology, Folklore and
Religion”. Perspectives: The Student Magazine of the Department of British and
American Studies. [Online]. (Perspectives)
http://www.perspectivesmagazine.sk/news/ravens-and-crows-in-mythology-
folklore-and-religion/ [2016, August 24]
The President and Fellows of Harvard College (2016). “Tuberculosis in Europe and
America, 1800-1922”. Contagion: Historical Views of Disease and Epidemics.
[Online]. (Harvard University Library Open Collections Program).
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/tuberculosis.html [2016, August 24]
Zappia, Susie (n.d.) “Characteristics of Romanticism in Early American Writing”.
Seattle PI. [Online]. (Hearst Seattle Media, LLC).

17
 http://education.seattlepi.com/characteristics-romanticism-early-american-
writing-5920.html [2016, August 19].

Books:
Hayes, Bruce (1995). Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies. Chicago: U.
of Chicago P.
Kübler-Ross Elisabeth (1969). On Death and Dying. New York City: Simon &
Schuster.
Nünning, Ansgar and Vera (2014). An Introduction to the Study of English and
American Literature. Translated by Jane Dewhurst. Stuttgart: Klett Lerntraining.
The Poetry Center, John Timpane and Maureen Watts (2001). Poetry for Dummies.
New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc..

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 9. Declaration of Honesty

Name: Dennis Benjamin Beowulf Masser

Matrikelnummer: 1431273

Erklärung

Ich erkläre hiermit, dass ich die vorstehende Seminararbeit selbstständig verfasst habe
und keine anderen als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt wurden, dass
Zitate kenntlich gemacht sind und die Arbeit noch in keinem anderen Prüfungsverfahren
vorgelegt wurde.

Declaration

I hereby declare that this term paper is the result of my own independent scholarly
work, and that in all cases material from the work of others is acknowledged.
Quotations and paraphrases are clearly indicated and no material other than listed has
been used. This written work has not been submitted for academic critical elsewhere.

Graz, September 1, 2016

Ort, Datum (place, date) Unterschrift (signature)

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