Edgar Allan Poe Romanticism and the Gothic

Romanticism vs. Gothic Romantic writers celebrated the beauties of nature. Gothic writers were peering into the darkness at the supernatural.  Romanticism developed as a reaction against the Age of Reason. The romantics freed the imagination from the hold of reason, so they could follow their imagination wherever it might lead. For some Romantics, when they looked at the individual, they saw hope.  For some Romantic writers, the imagination led to the threshold of the unknown— the shadowy region where the fantastic, the demonic and the insane reside.  When the Gothic's saw the individual, they saw the potential of evil.

Gothic Movement in America The Gothic Tradition was firmly established in Europe before American writers had made names for themselves. By the 19 th century, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathanial Hawthorne, and to a lesser extent Washington Irving and Herman Melville were using the Gothic elements in their writing. Edgar Allan Poe was the master of the Gothic form in the United States.

Edgar Allan Poe  His stories have: Settings that featuring ○ Dark, medieval castles ○ Decaying ancient estates Characters that are ○ Male—insane ○ Female—beautiful and dead (or dying) Plots that include ○ Murder ○ Live burials ○ Physical and mental torture ○ Retribution from beyond the grave For Poe, it was only in these extreme situations that people revealed their true nature.

The Gothic dimension of Poe’s fictional world offered him a way to explore the human mind in these extreme situations and so arrive at an essential truth

The Raven 6 Page 273 Follow along with video clip

Poetry Terms “Poetry is thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.” ~Thomas Gray “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” ~Robert Frost

Alliteration The repetition of initial consonant sounds, in two or more neighboring words or syllables. The wild and wooly walrus waits and wonders when we will walk by. Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees… -- from Silver by Walter de la Mare How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? (almost ALL tongue twisters!)

Consonance The repetition of a consonant sound at any place in a series of words. I dropped the locket in the thick mud. Eric liked the black book “And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain.” –Edgar Allen Poe

Assonance A repetition of vowel sounds within words or syllables. Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese. Free and easy. Make the grade. The stony walls enclosed the holy space.

Rhyme Internal Rhyme: The rhyming of words within one line of poetry

Rhyme End Rhyme: Rhyme that appears at the end of two or more lines of poetry Dust of Snow by Robert Frost The way a crow Shook down on me The dust of snow From a hemlock tree Has given my heart A change of mood And saved some part Of a day I had rued.

13 The Raven and Poetry

14 “Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers…” - from “Three Days to See” by Helen Keller Alliteration Examples

The Eagle by Alfred Lord Tennyson He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Assonance Example

Consonance Examples "'T was later when the summer went Than when the cricket came, And yet we knew that gentle clock Meant nought but going home. 'T was sooner when the cricket went Than when the winter came, Yet that pathetic pendulum Keeps esoteric time." Description: In these lines, Emily Dickinson has used the consonant 'm' frequently through the poem to emphasize the words.