Edgar Allan Poe's “The Raven”

Edgar Allan Poe, one of the world's most famous horror writers and the man credited with inventing the modern detective story, was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19th 1809. His short life ended at age forty but in these forty years Poe led an eccentric life, battled alcoholism and wrote some of America's most famous pieces of literature. Throughout his life Poe wrote over twenty short stories and composed many poems, all in the Gothic style that became synonymous with Poe himself (Zamarovsky, 22).

'The Raven', written four years before his death, is an excellent example of Poe's Gothic, poetic style; composed of one hundred and eight lines and split into eighteen verses 'The Raven' is also one of Poe's longest poems not to mention one of his most famous (Zamarovsky, 29). 'The Raven' is said to be written in trochaic octameter, a poetic structure which means that the poem is written in lines of eight 'trochees' or pairs of syllables - the first with a strong stress and the second with a weak. This hypnotic method of writing gives 'The Raven' an almost lyrical feel as though it were a song, rather than a poem.

'The Raven' was first published in the New York Evening Mirror on January 29th 1845 and soon achieved international acclaim, being translated into many languages including a famous translation by French poet Sphane Mallarm (Zamarovsky, 32).

'The Raven' is a haunting tale of the lonely narrator who finds himself alone in his chamber on a 'dreary' December midnight, reading and 'nearly napping' (Zamarovsky, 36). Before long his fitful sleeping is interrupted by a 'rapping at his chamber door'. He opens the door and whispers the single name 'Lenore' - it is here that we discover the narrator is mourning the death of Lenore whom we assume to be his wife or lover. Illogically the narrator hopes that the visitor who has roused him is the ghost of Lenore (Zamarovsky, 37).

Discovering that nothing except darkness lies behind his chamber door he returns to his original position before the tapping resumes, this time coming from his window. As he opens the window a 'stately raven' enters and flies around the chamber before positioning itself on a bust that the narrator has above his door (Zamarovsky, 39). Asking the raven its name, the narrator is surprised when the bird replies 'Nevermore'. The narrator, now intrigued by this strange bird, pulls up a chair and begins speaking to the raven, despite the bird's lack of vocabulary. Unable to resist, the narrator begins to question the bird, however he can anticipate that, to each question, the answer will be 'Nevermore'.

This is an example of the self-torture which the narrator inflicts upon himself. By the end of the poem the narrator has given up; to continue to talk to the bird would be pointless and so he accepts the bird's prophecy, believing that his soul now lies in the shadow cast by the raven and "Shall be ...