Edgar Allan Poe was born an American in Boston Massachusetts in January 19, 1809 and dying in October 7, 1849 by speculated reasons. . He is famously known for his works in literature and poetry, with notable works such as “The Raven”, “Cask of Amontillado”, and “The Masque of the Red Death”. Poe’s work style of literature is known to illustrate a sadist and melancholy take on life. This is primarily due to the hard life he had lived. Poe’s father had abandoned his family in 1810, with his mother then dying a year later. He was then fostered for the rest of his life. Living an odd life marrying his first cousin Virginia Eliza Clemm whom was only 13 years old. On January 1842 Clemm, had contracted tuberculosis, which led to her death 5 years later. She is known have played a role after death in Poe’s works such as in “The Raven” published in January 1845. The poem beautifully captivates a man’s quick spiral from normality to insanity from past hardships. I’ve chose to write about this poem for it’s alluring darkness of the mind of a man who’s lost a great deal.
The chambers of the narrator symbolizes security, safety and remembrance of a long lost love lenore. These chambers and what it symbolizes is soon intruded by a greater symbol of the poem, the raven. It symbolizes darkness, sorrow, and death as it bombards the narrator with haunting memories he is desperately trying to escape. The raven constantly repeats the phrase "Nevermore”, which coincidently is similar sounding to the narrators lost love Lenore. “And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door” symbolizes the ravens lingering sorrow and reminder of a lost love as it sits above the narrators home until the very end of the poem.
The denotation of the symbols in “The Raven” are as follows. A chamber has various denotative meanings referring to government, media, and rooms/spaces, but for this poem it refers to a room inside a building or house. The denotation of a raven consists of one of the several members of the genus Corvus. They are commonly found in north America and Europe and contain black plumage and large breaks.
As a whole I believe the poem underlies a theme in lost love, self loathing, and a want/need to escape. From the beginning within the security of the narrator's home, he is constantly brushed with the thoughts of his love Lenore. Though at this point he still has his sanity until the arrival of the Raven. The raven had first gone unnoticed outside the chamber door to then becoming an admiring site when its tapping and first use of the word nevermore gained the narrators attention. It then had became a wicked site as it brought forth the narrator’s thoughts of his past lost love. The raven in this sequence symbolizes and illustrates the concept of a dreaded memory as it first goes unnoticed, to then soon become a nuisance before fully becoming a haunting lingering thought.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15638
http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/raven/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Eliza_Clemm_Poe
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