The Raven Edgar Allan Poe Paul Gustave Dore

Edgar Allan Poe ( )

Edgar Allan Poe’s Background The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Raven.” His works includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself.

Edgar Allan Poe Poe was born in Boston in Within three years of Poe’s birth he lost both of his parents. His father abandoned their family, and his mother died a year later from consumption otherwise known as tuberculosis. He was then taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances in Virginia. In 1826 Poe attend the University of Virginia, where he excelled in his classes, but accumulated a lot of debt. Mr. Allan, his adoptive father, sent Poe to college with less than a third of the money he needed, and Poe had to take up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.

Poe’s Education With no money, no job skills, and being shunned by Mr. Allan, Edgar returned to Boston and joined the US Army at West Point in Then in 1829, his only ally, his adoptive mother, Mrs. Allan passed away from tuberculosis. The same disease that took his own mother. Broke and alone, Poe turned to Baltimore, his late father’s home, and called upon relatives in the city. Poe’s aunt Maria Clemm, became a new mother to him and welcomed him into her home.

Poe’s Personal Life In 1836 at the age of almost twenty- seven, Poe brought Maria and Virginia Clemm to New York and married his cousin Virginia. From 1837 to 1842 he worked as a freelance writer and editor in New York City and Philadelphia, but earned very little. Poe wrote for a number of different magazines. In spite of his growing fame as a writer, he was still barely able to make a living.

Poe, a Struggling Writer In 1831 he moved to New York City and submitted numerous stories with no success. He sent a letter to Mr. Allan begging him for money, but none came. Three years later John Allan died and did not mention Edgar in his will. By 1835 Poe was living in poverty but had started publishing his short stories.

The Raven The January 1845 publication of “The Raven” made Poe a household name. In the winter of 1847, his wife Virginia died at the age of 24 from tuberculosis. The same illness that took both his mother and his adoptive mother, Mrs. Allan. Poe was devastated when Virginia died, and was unable to write for months. Poe died in The exact cause of Poe’s death remains a mystery.

Father of Horror The mystery surrounding Poe's death has led to many myths and urban legends. The reality is that no one knows for sure what happened during the last few days of his life. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre and wrote the first real American horror stories, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry.

The Raven Background "The Raven" is a narrative poem First published in January, 1845 Noted for its musicality, stylized language, and supernatural atmosphere. It tells of a talking raven's mysterious visit to a distraught lover, tracing the man's slow descent into madness. The lover, often identified as being a student, is lamenting the loss of his love, Lenore.

The Raven Background The raven, sitting on a bust of Pallas, seems to further instigate his distress with its constant repetition of the word, "Nevermore". Poe claimed to have written the poem very logically and methodically. His intention was to create a poem that would appeal to both critical and popular tastes, as he explains in the follow-up essay "The Philosophy of Composition". The first publication of "The Raven" on January 29, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror made Poe widely popular in his lifetime. The poem was soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. Though some critics disagree about the value of the poem, it remains one of the most famous ever written.

Literary Elements in the Raven Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

Literary Elements in the Raven Assonance - the repetition of vowel sounds, usually within words. And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Literary Elements in the Raven Internal rhyme - the rhyming of words within a line of poetry, not just at the end of the lines. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Theme/Conflict The main theme of the poem is one of undying devotion. The narrator experiences a conflict between desire to forget and desire to remember. It seems that he likes to be sad.

Theme Continued… The narrator assumes that the word "Nevermore" is the raven's "only stock and store", and yet he continues to ask it questions, knowing what the answer will be. His questions, then, are purposely self-deprecating and further provoke his feelings of loss. The narrator begins as weak and weary, becomes regretful and heart-broken, before passing into a frenzy and, finally, madness. Poe leaves it unclear if the raven actually knows what it is saying or if it really intends to cause a reaction in the poem's narrator. The title character, the raven, seems to further instigate the man’s distress with the constant repetition of the word, "Nevermore".

The Raven in Pop Culture Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" has been frequently referenced and parodied in contemporary culture. Immediately popular after the poem's publication in 1845, it quickly became a cultural phenomenon. Some consider it the best poem ever written. As such, modern references to the poem continue to appear in popular culture.

The Raven “Simpson-ized” The Simpsons original Treehouse of Horror parodies the poem in its third segment as Lisa reads the story to Bart and Maggie. In the animated segment, Homer serves as the protagonist, Bart takes the raven, Marge appears in a painting as Lenore, and Lisa and Maggie are angels. Some of the poem is cut for time (stanzas 9 through 13, 15 and 16), it is a closely accurate interpretation. After the poem, Bart says he didn’t think the poem was scary and Lisa suggests that people may have been more easily scared in As Lisa is reading, take note of when she says Poe is setting the mood. What is the mood of “The Raven”?

The Baltimore Ravens The team's name was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's poem “The Raven”—as Poe lived for a time in Baltimore, died, and was buried there in 1849.

Now look back at the poem Label the figurative language you see, like: Symbolism Repetition for emphasis Alliteration Etc.