THE RAVEN, 1845: Edgar Allen Poe

THE RAVEN, 1845
Edgar Allen Poe

The secret of a poem, no less than a jest's
prosperity, lies in the ear of him that hears it.
Yield to its spell, accept the poet's mood: this,
after all, is what the sages answer when you
ask them of its value.
In Charles Dickens' 1841
novel, Barnaby Rudge, the main
Source of Inspiration
character Barnaby owns a pet
raven, Grip, which can speak.
In the fifth chapter of the
novel, Grip taps at a shutter
(as in Poe's poem).
After Grip died, it was stuffed
and mounted. An admirer of
Poe's works acquired the
mounted bird and donated it
to the Free Library of
Philadelphia, where it is on
display today
Grip
Perched on a log, in the Rare Books department of the Philadelphia Free
Library stands a strange piece of history..
Dead since 1841 but preserved with arsenic and frozen inside a shadow box,
Grip the Clever, Grip the Wicked, Grip the Knowing
Raven, a Glorified Crow
A raven, which can

be up to two feet
long, is a type of
crow.
They often appear in
legend and literature
as sinister omens.

Theme
The death of a beautiful woman, as lamented

by her bereaved lover
Setting
The chamber of a house

at midnight.
Poe uses the word
chamber rather than
bedroom apparently
because chamber has a
dark and mysterious
connotation.
First-Person Narrator (Persona)
A man who has lost his

beloved, a woman named
Lenore.
He is depressed,
lonely, and possibly
mentally unstable as a
result of his bereavement.
Who Is Lenore?
It is possible that Lenore, the
idealized deceased woman in
the poem, represents Poe’s
beloved wife, Virginia, who
was in poor health when Poe
wrote "The Raven.“
She died two years after the

publication of the poem,
when she was only in her
mid-twenties.
Word Choice
As in his short stories, Poe is careful to use

primarily words that contribute to the overall
atmosphere and tone of the poem. These words
include
weary sad stern ghastly

Dreary darkness grave gaunt
bleak stillness grim ebony
dying mystery lonely Sorrow
Sound and Rhythm
The melancholy tone of "The Raven" relies as much on its musical
sound and rhythmic pattern as on the meaning of the words. To
achieve his musical effect, Poe uses
internal rhyme, rhyming words in the same line
end rhyme, a word at the end of one line that rhymes with a word
at the end of another line
alliteration, a figure of speech that repeats a consonant sound
a regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. This pattern

uses a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, with a
total of sixteen syllables in each line (example on next slide)
the first line
ONCE u PON a MID night DREAR y,

WHILE i POND ered WEAK and WEAR y
the capitalized letters represent the stressed syllables and the lower-
cased letters, the unstressed ones.
the line has sixteen syllables in all.
the line has internal rhyme (dreary and weary) and alliteration (while,
weak, weary).
Criticism
Some reviewers in Poe’s day criticized “The Raven”
for its sing-song, highly emotional quality.
The poem is still criticized today – and often

parodied – for the same reason.
However, the consensus appears to be that the poem

is a meticulously crafted work of genius and fully deserves
its standing as one of the most popular poems in
American literature.
The Baltimore Ravens
National Football League 2000 Super Bowl champions are named

The Baltimore Ravens
• Mascots : Edgar Allen and Poe
•But what does rhymes about lost love have to do with big athletes
trampling people?
The Simpsons
The Author
The Raven" made Poe so popular that children would chase the author until he
would turn around, raise his arms and yell "Nevermore." Yet despite the
popularity of that dark and haunting poem, Poe remained a poor man.
One of the reasons the author was so poor is that he would often spend months
working on a poem, only to be paid a few dollars from the reviews or
newspapers that would publish it. Poe sold "The Raven" in 1845 for around
$15.
Just four years after "The Raven" made him an international celebrity, Poe
died, nearly broke.

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THE RAVEN, 1845

Edgar Allen Poe

A raven, which can

The death of a beautiful woman, as lamented

The chamber of a house

A man who has lost his

She died two years after the

As in his short stories, Poe is careful to use

weary sad stern ghastly

alliteration, a figure of speech that repeats a consonant sound

a regular pattern of accented and unaccented syllables. This pattern

ONCE u PON a MID night DREAR y,

The poem is still criticized today – and often

However, the consensus appears to be that the poem

National Football League 2000 Super Bowl champions are named

• Mascots : Edgar Allen and Poe

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