Poe Poem and Drink Edgar

Poe Poem and Drink

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most well-known American Gothic literature writers of the 19th century. Poe is often identified by his dark and macabre writing style that examines a variety of issues such as the death of a beautiful woman and an individual's descent into madness. These two themes are a focal point of "The Raven" in which an unnamed narrator mourns the loss of his lover, Lenore, and is inexplicably haunted by a raven.

Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, the second of three children born to David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe. Poe's father abandoned his family shortly after his younger sister was born, and Poe's mother died when he was two years old, which may point to the foundation of his obsession with the death of a beautiful woman. Poe's literary career began during his brief enrollment at West Point. After being expelled from West Point, Poe worked as an editor, writer, and literary critic. Poe married Virginia Clemm on May 16, 1836 and although he was deeply committed to her, she fell seriously ill in 1845, which sent Poe into a maddening depression. Virginia died in January 1847, which drove him into further despair. After his wife's death, Poe wrote, "My enemies referred to the insanity…it was the horrible never-ending oscillation between hope and despair which I could not longer have endured with total loss of reason. In the death of what was my life, then, I receive a new but -- oh God! how melancholy an existence" (Poe, 1480). It is this oscillation between hope and despair that pervade "The Raven" and illustrate not only the narrator's descent into grieving madness, but also Poe's.

In "The Raven," an unnamed narrator is mourning the loss of the woman he loves. In the poem, the narrator is trying to lose himself in "a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore" vainly seeking "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" (lines 2, 9-12). The narrator is attempting to forget his sorrows when he is distracted by a mysterious noise, "As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door" (ln 4). Because of the time of night, "a midnight dreary," and the weather and time of year, "bleak December," the narrator quickly becomes concerned about who might be knocking at his door, and though he tries to assure himself by telling himself, "Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door,/Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door:/This it is and nothing more," he grows to realize that his late night visitor is not there to comfort him, but rather torment him (ln 1,7, 16-18). The longer the narrator attempts to discern the reason for the raven's visit, the deeper into paranoia he falls, and the poem becomes more maddening. It is interesting to see how the raven's sole response of "Nevermore" drives the narrator deeper into insanity because despite the narrator's changing line of questioning, the raven says nothing else but "Nevermore," which seems to indicate that the narrator is asking questions that are rooted in his personal fears. The longer the narrator attempts to question the bird, the more convinced he becomes that the raven has been sent by the devil to taunt and torment him. The narrator exclaims, "Prophet!" said I, "thing of evil! Prophet still, if bird or devil!/Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed the here ashore,/Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -- /on this home by Horror haunted -- tell me truly, I implore," pleading for the raven to answer his questions, any of them, and to put his mind at ease (ln 85-88). Despite the narrator's desperate pleas, the raven says nothing else than "nevermore." Moreover, the narrator now finds himself unable to get rid of the bird and states, "And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting/on the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;/and his eyes have all the seeming of a demons' that is dreaming,/and the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor:/and my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor/Shall be lifted -- nevermore!" (ln 103-108). Whether it is the bird or his grief for Lenore that triggered the narrator's insanity, he will never be able to escape the unanswered questions he posed to the bird and will forever be haunted by the memory of Lenore and by the physical presence of the raven.

The theme of the loss of a beautiful woman -- possibly rooted in the loss of his mother at an early age and the loss of his wife -- is a recurring theme in several of Poe's works, including his poem "Annabel Lee" and the short story "Ligeia." In both of these works, the narrator tries to come to terms with the loss of his lover. What is more, "Ligeia" also explores issues of good and evil as the narrator in the story attempts to reconcile the death of his lover, Rowena, and her transformation into Ligeia, who is the opposite of what Rowena was ("Ligeia"). Issues of madness are most prevalent in other Poe short stories such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" in which the narrator acts irrationally because he believes he is being haunted by his neighbor's evil eye. Like the narrator in "The Raven," the narrator in "The Tell-Tale Heart" convinces himself of the evil intent of something that does not have the capacity to be good or evil; a bird and an eye do not have the ability to reason, thus, logically, they cannot plot against an individual and any feelings or fears that do arise are a result of the narrators' subconscious anxieties overtaking them.