The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Influenced by the English Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Lord" George Gordon Byron, and Percy Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe represents one of the essential American Romantic poets of the 19th century. Romanticism here refers to a literary movement in the late 1700s and 1800s that focused on the emotional life of the individual and curiosity about oneself. This move complimented a broader geopolitical and ideological shift in the United States. Just as a young nation made its way to the West, its writers and philosophers explored the unknown territory of the human mind.
Some romantic poets, such as the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, saw the potential for positive revelations within the self. Reflecting his belief in the inherent goodness of people, Emerson's poetry highlights enchanting elements such as natural features, water, and light. Poe, on the other hand, was interested in probing the darkest depths of the human psyche. It uses gloomy gothic scenes and nightmare sequences to suggest that self-reliance and turning inward does not result in enlightenment, but rather in terror and anxiety. The human mind, Poe argues, does not need help from lurid exteriors: it is fully capable of creating horror from within. This theme of self-generated inner torment plays a prominent role in "The Raven."
Poe's works defy categorization. They contain elements of detective fiction, gothic thrillers, Victorian love poetry, and even comedy. He is sometimes credited with being the creator of the modern tale, and his stories, including "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Cask of Amontillado" are among the best known in the world. literary. His critical views were also influenced, especially the idea that poetry should be musical, that it should focus on beauty over truth, and that it should uplift the soul.
Poe especially wished to be known as a poet, although he only wrote about fifty poems in all. His narrative poem "The Raven" is his most popular work, although others such as "Annabel Lee" and "Ulalume" are also widely read. Poe's poetry features rigid rhyming schemes and stanza patterns. Its speakers are always unnamed males; Although it is tempting to read his poems as autobiographical, they are more likely to represent an exercise in subjective exploration of emotion, as did the works of other Romantic poets of his time. Poe speakers often embark on a literal journey or a journey of the mind. Starting from a place of rational credibility, they are gradually superseded and their emotions make them unreliable. "The Raven" fits this mold. The poem became so powerfully associated with Poe that the author himself is sometimes referred to as "the raven."
