Poe’s “The Raven”. An Interpretive Reading

Contents

1. Introduction

2. “The Raven” – An Interpretive Reading

3. Conclusion

4. Bibliography

1. Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe, who was born in Boston on January 19, 1809 and died in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, is surely one of the most prolific authors connected with the period of dark romanticism of the 19th century. He is not only considered to be one of the founders of the genre of the short story and detective story but he has also immensely influenced many writers of Horror, Science Fiction and Crime Fiction such as H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Arthur Conan Doyle. Most readers of American Literature know at least one or two of Poe’s tales about the macabre or uncanny. Apart from tales, short stories and sketches he has also written essays, literary criticism and several poems.

“The Raven”, first published in 1845, is undoubtedly one of the most popular and financially successful works of his literary heritage. In 1846, one year after the poem had received tremendous ovations from the public, Poe published his essay “The Philosophy of Composition”. In this essay he claims that every artistic piece of writing should be written in such a way that the work proceeds “step by step, to its completion with the precision and rigid consequence of a mathematical problem.”^[1] In this context, the poem “The Raven” serves as the prime example of this theory of a deliberately planned artistry. Along with this essay, I will provide an analysis of the poem and take two more of his essays into consideration: “The Poetic Principle”, published posthumously in 1850, and finally his prose piece, half sketch – half essay, “The Imp of the Perverse”, first published in 1845.

While “The Raven” is surely Poe’s most popular poem, many critics have argued that it is definitely not his greatest lyrical achievement as the poem is overcharged with acoustic or rhetoric devices.^[2] As a comparison with other of Poe’s poems would require more space and time than is available, I will try to analyse the poem as closely as possible to see to what degree the above statement is valid.

2. “The Raven” – An Interpretive Reading

I will briefly summarize the events on the surface of the poem – Poe called it the upper-current meaning in “The Philosophy of Composition” – before discussing the poem in more details.

On a dreary December night a young scholar looks at books of long forgotten lore and wisdom to ease the sorrow he feels for his lost lover Lenore. Nearly asleep, he hears a knocking at the door of his chamber; the curtains rustle and thrill him. He opens the door in his stupor, thinking his lover Lenore might have come back from the realm of the dead. When nobody can be found outside, he goes back to his chamber. He then hears the rapping again, opens the window and a raven flutters into the room. The raven sits down on the bust of Pallas above the door and croaks “Nevermore” – a word it has obviously learnt from its former master – to all the questions the student asks him. Although the student is first amused by the raven and knows that the word “nevermore” is all the raven can utter, he later tries to seek a deeper meaning of the word. After some rather harmless questions, his thoughts now evolve around his dead lover and he asks the raven if he might ever find oblivion from Lenore to which the raven only answers “nevermore”. Still not satisfied, his last desperate step is to ask if he will be able to see his love again in another world. The answer of the raven remains unchanged. In the end, the raven does not leave the bust and finally is transformed into an emblem of the scholar’s mournful and never-ending remembrance.^[3]

First of all, the form of the poem shall be discussed. “The Raven” consists of eighteen stanzas at six verses each, amounting to a total of 108 lines. The rhythm of the poem is regular and of its 719 feet an astonishing 98 percent are trochees while the remaining two percent are doubtful trochees or dactylic. One hardly finds any poem that length with such a marvellous regularity.^[4] Even the metre is very systematic and obeys the following principle: in every stanza the first and the third lines are octameters, in the second, fourth and fifth line heptameters are employed, and the closing sixth line, i.e. the refrain, is a tetrameter. End rhymes can be found in each stanza in the second and sixth line, e.g. “lore” - “nothing more” , and in the fourth and the fifth line, with the fourth and the fifth being identical rhymes, e.g. “door” and “door”, “Lenore” and “Lenore” (l.4 – l.6, l.11 – 13)^[5]. The use of “-or (e)” rhymes is frequent and is, according to Poe, used to combine the “most sonorous vowel with the most producible consonant.”^[6] Apart from end rhymes, the frequent internal rhymes follow a certain scheme, too: if one divides the eight feet in the first and third line in two sections of four feet each, the last word of the first section rhymes with the last word of the second section, e.g. ”dreary”- “weary”; napping”-“tapping” (l.1 – 3), “stronger”- ”longer” (l.19) or ”unbroken” - “no token” (l.27). This internal rhyme scheme is then even carried on to the fourth line, where it rhymes again with the last word of the first section. The words “Nepenthe” or “Aideen” seem to have been chosen, amongst other reasons^[7], not to disrupt the rhyme scheme. As if this would not be enough, alliteration is also a predominant feature, e.g. “doubting, dreaming dreams” (l.26), “followed fast and followed faster” (l.63) or “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt” (l.71). Anaphora is not employed so often as in other of Poe’s poems. The words “Let” (l.34 - 35), “This” (l.73 – 75), “Leave” (l.99 – 100) are the only examples till “And” is employed at the beginning of four verses in the eighteenth stanza. Poe’s repetitive use of nearly identical lines – e.g. “‘Tis some visiter entreating….” and “some late visiter entreating…” (l.16-17) – is also very intriguing and imprints a remaining impression on the reader’s mind.^[8] One of the main effects of the poem is surely the refrain. The word “Nevermore” (eleven times), “evermore” (once) or “nothing more” (six times) at the end of each stanza rhyme mostly with the words “door” (fourteen times) or “Lenore” (eight times), which is another striking regularity.^[9] One might at first consider this extreme regularity monotonous but it should be regarded as an incantation of the name “Lenore” - always crushed later on by the “Nevermore” of the raven.^[10]

Having dealt with the formalities of the poem, let me now begin with the narrative action.

Most fairy tales begin with the words “once upon a time…”, thus setting the stage for a story of magic and wonder. The same is true for the first stanza of “The Raven”. The use of the two words “once upon” and “midnight dreary” (l.1) combines elements of the fairy tale with those of gothic narrations.^[11] The state the student is in is excellently visualised by the combination of the words “dreary”, “weak” and “weary” (l.1), “nodded” and “napping” (l.3).^[12] While the first half of the stanza conjures up a vivid image of the sleeping student, the word “suddenly” (l.3) introduces an interruption of the dream-like status and creates a new situation. We can virtually see the student mutter to himself and standing up. The student has now fully awoken and has left the land of dreams and wonders for the world of reality. The “tapping” outside of his chamber interrupts the dreams of the student and leads him back to reality. Even here at the beginning it becomes clear that one cannot leave the boundaries of reality by sheer imagination alone.^[13] The ghastly shadows produced by the embers in the fire place and the words “bleak”, “vainly” and “sorrow” (l.7 – 10) illustrate not only his grief for the lost Lenore, who is so beautiful that even the angels gave her this name, but also the state of his feeble, haunted mind.^[14] In his essay “The Poetic Principle” we find exactly this concept: the longing for unattainable beauty or eternal happiness in the earthly world. Perfectly phrased in the sentence: “It is the desire of the moth for the star […] - a wild effort to reach the beauty above.”^[15] A concept that is prototypical for most of his poetry. However, the poem is not only about melancholy. After the visual impressions of the ember, the aural concept of the rustling curtains is added. He now not only sees but hears the “ghosts” in his room.^[16] An aspect that has widely been overlooked is that the words “silken”, “sad” and “purple” (l.13) might also hint at Lenore herself. Is not silk and purple often associated with women, especially beautiful ones? Could it be some kind of fetish he keeps to be always remembered of her? At least it does the trick with the student. He is “thrilled” and “filled” with “fantastic terrors” (l.14). The question that arises here is whether the terrors are a product of his fantasy, i.e. fantastical in its original meaning, or whether he virtually cherishes these terrors, i.e. fantastical in the sense of “wonderful” or “good”. This ambiguity only stresses the point that he is both uplifted and downtrodden by this experience, the lust of the perverseness in terror. To keep up his courage, he repeats his assumption about a “visiter” in two nearly identical verses, the so called repetend (l.16 - 17) – a term originating in the mathematical science where it denotes the digits in a recurring decimal that repeats itself^[17] ; Poe later transferred it to the world of literature. Nothing is more apt to describe his hesitation and deliberation.^[18] The refrain takes up the idea from the first stanza, rejecting a supernatural apparition.

The next stanza sees a determined student. He finally gathers all his strength, utters an apology to a “Sir” or “Madam” he expects outside the door (l.20), then throws the door wide open (l.23) and sees nothing but “darkness there and nothing more” (l.24). The fact that he opens the door “wide” illustrates his anxiety and expectation. Who else – if one does not expect someone familiar – would throw the door open at midnight to some stranger? Poe explains the student’s state as “adopting the half-fancy that it was the spirit of his mistress that knocked.”^[19] The student is both relieved and disappointed not to see anything but utter blackness.

Not satisfied with the situation, he spends a long time “into the darkness peering”, “wondering”, “fearing”, “doubting” and “dreaming” (l.25 – 26). His state of mind can be described as full of confusion and weary with sleep. He does not know what to make of the whole situation. The whisper of the name “Lenore” and its echo pierce the darkness and stillness of the night (l.27 – 29). Neither an evil spirit nor his lost love responds. Only his sorrow is reflected, “merely this and nothing more.” (l.30). The refrain here can be seen as another hint that, unlike other of Poe’s poems, the supernatural does not have power on this side of existence. Just a faint echo of “Lenore” prevails.^[20] Still agitated by his thoughts on Lenore and the disillusionment of the silent darkness that awaits him outside the door, he moves back in the chamber his “soul within me burning” (l.31).

[...]

^[1] Edgar Allan Poe. “The Philosophy of Composition”. In G.R. Thompson (ed.). Poe: Essays and Reviews. New York, 1984, 15. From now on referred to as POC.

^[2] Thomas Callmer. Poe oder der Horror in der Sprache. Augsburg, 1999, 214.

^[3] For a detailed plot see Robert L.Gale. Plots and characters in the fiction and poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. Hamden, Conneticut, 1970, 86-87.

^[4] W. L. Werner. “Poe’s Theories and Practice in Poetic Technique.” In Graham Clarke (ed.). Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Assessments Vol. III. Mountfield, East Sussex, 1991, 39.

^[5] Edgar Allan Poe. “The Raven”. In Thomas Ollive Mabbot (ed.). Collected Works of Edgar Allan Poe Volume I: Poems. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1969, 364 – 369. Line number will always refer to this edition.

^[6] Poe, POC, 18.

^[7] Lafcadio Hearn. “Poe’s Verse”. In Graham Clarke (ed.). Edgar Allan Poe: Critical Assessments Vol. III. Mountfield, East Sussex, 1991, 11.

^[8] Hearn, 2.

^[9] Callmer, 220.

^[10] Franz H. Link. Edgar Allan Poe. Ein Dichter zwischen Romantik und Moderne. Frankfurt, 1968, 158. Later referred to as Link a).

^[11] Callmer, 215.

^[12] John Phelps Fruit. The Mind and Art of Poe’s Poetry. New York, 1966, 115.

^[13] Franz H. Link. Geschichte d er amerikanischen Verskunst bis 1900. Stuttgart, 1988, 156.

^[14] Fruit, 117.

^[15] Edgar Allan Poe. “The Poetic Principle“. In G.R. Thompson (ed.). Poe: Essays and Reviews. New York, 1984, 77. Later referred to as PP.

^[16] Fruit, 117.

^[17] Diana Treffry (ed.). Collins English Dictionary. Fourth Edition, Glasgow, 1998.

^[18] Fruit, 118.

^[19] Poe, POC, 22.

^[20] Fruit, 119.