"Edgar Allan Poe is dead," read the obituary. "This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends, and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars."
That incredibly nasty appraisal ran six days after Poe was found, disheveled and unconscious, in the gutter of a Baltimore street. Poe lived, barely, for four more delirious days before dying of causes still unknown. The obituary was written by his greatest literary rival, a man named Rufus Griswold. Griswold, not content with his handiwork in the obituary, also published a libelous Poe biography full of lies shortly after the poet's untimely death. Add all that to the tall tales that Poe told about himself during his lifetime, and you might begin to understand how Edgar Allan Poe has become, in death, one of the best-loved but least understood writers in American literature.
Poe was a master of the short story and narrative poem. He had a gift for suspense and delightfully twisted plots. But his real gift was his ability to understand that part of our psyche that craves the macabre. He could see into the darkest corners of the human mind. As a man who lived and died in poverty—and as a man whose loved ones perished one by one of consumption (a.k.a.tuberculousis)—it's possible that Poe knew those dark places so well because he had so often been there himself.
Not that Poe was all serious. He described his stories as "half banter, half satire." He wrote spooky stories in part because he knew they would sell. He sometimes veered into sensationalism for the sake of being sensational and did so with a winking acknowledgment to readers that he was writing schmaltz on purpose. Though he professed to be in the writing business just for the money, Poe nonetheless changed American literature forever. You don't need to look much farther than today's bestseller lists to see that America still loves a good suspense story. According to Steven King, who knows a thing or two about telling a scary story, he and his colleagues are all "the children of Poe."
That incredibly nasty appraisal ran six days after Poe was found, disheveled and unconscious, in the gutter of a Baltimore street. Poe lived, barely, for four more delirious days before dying of causes still unknown. The obituary was written by his greatest literary rival, a man named Rufus Griswold. Griswold, not content with his handiwork in the obituary, also published a libelous Poe biography full of lies shortly after the poet's untimely death. Add all that to the tall tales that Poe told about himself during his lifetime, and you might begin to understand how Edgar Allan Poe has become, in death, one of the best-loved but least understood writers in American literature.
Poe was a master of the short story and narrative poem. He had a gift for suspense and delightfully twisted plots. But his real gift was his ability to understand that part of our psyche that craves the macabre. He could see into the darkest corners of the human mind. As a man who lived and died in poverty—and as a man whose loved ones perished one by one of consumption (a.k.a.tuberculousis)—it's possible that Poe knew those dark places so well because he had so often been there himself.
Not that Poe was all serious. He described his stories as "half banter, half satire." He wrote spooky stories in part because he knew they would sell. He sometimes veered into sensationalism for the sake of being sensational and did so with a winking acknowledgment to readers that he was writing schmaltz on purpose. Though he professed to be in the writing business just for the money, Poe nonetheless changed American literature forever. You don't need to look much farther than today's bestseller lists to see that America still loves a good suspense story. According to Steven King, who knows a thing or two about telling a scary story, he and his colleagues are all "the children of Poe."
BEFORE YOU START STUDYING THE POEM "THE RAVEN" READ POE'S ESSAY "THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION" AND USE THE STUDY GUIDE.
According to Poe’s essay, “The Philosophy of Composition,” what were Poe’s primary considerations and motivations for writing “The Raven?” What questions does the essay raise for you as a reader of the poem? What does it tell us about the way poetry was discussed in Poe’s time?
THE RAVEN
LISTEN TO THE POEM "THE RAVEN'':
Read the poem "The Raven" and get ready to discuss it in class.
The first links to consider Study Guide The Raven & Explaining the Raven
Also read:
The first links to consider Study Guide The Raven & Explaining the Raven
Also read:
THE RAVEN(1)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
“The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe -- Reading Comprehension
“The Raven” is about a man and his encounter with a raven, an ominous-looking bird made more terrifying by the uneasy mental condition of the poem's speaker.
Stanza 1.
· What was the speaker doing?
· What condition was he in?
· What does he say he was doing in line three?
· What did he hear?
Stanza 2.
· What does the speaker give us to see in the second line?
· What is the speaker wishing for?
· What had he been doing? With his books? Why?
· How was he feeling? Why?
· Who is Lenore?
· What does the last line mean?
Stanza 3.
· What vision does the speaker give in the first line?
· How does he make it seem eerie?
· What does he say in the second line?
· What seems to be happening to him?
· What type of state does he seem to be going into? Why?
Stanza 4.
· Does he open the door before or after he speaks?
· What does he find when he opens the door?
Stanza 5.
· Does he close the door or keep it open?
· What does he see?
· What is the darkness like?
· How does it make him feel?
· What does he say?
· What does he hear? Does he really hear something or is it his imagination?
Stanza 6.
· He has shut the door and moved to the window, how does he open the window?
· What does he find?
· What do you know about Ravens?
· How does the speaker say the Raven acted in lines three and four?
· What does the Raven do?
Stanza 7.
· What does the bird do for the speaker in the first line?
· Knowing what you know about Ravens, how is this ironic?
· Where does the speaker think the bird has come from? Why?
· What does the speaker ask the bird?
· What does the bird reply?
Stanza 8.
· How does the speaker feel about the Raven in his chamber?
· Does he think that the bird's presence has any significance?Why/why not?
Stanza 9
· Has the Raven moved since entering the house?
· How do you know?
· What does the speaker believe the bird will do?
· When does he believe that the bird will leave?
· What does the bird say?
Stanza 10
· What word does the speaker wish to be the last spoken between him and the bird?
· Where does he tell the bird to go?
· What does he tell the bird not to leave?
· What is a black plume?
· What does the speaker imply when he tells the Raven to take its beak from his heart?
· How does the speaker feel about the Raven at this point?
· Is he still happy to see the bird or does he perhaps wish he had never met him?
Stanza 11.
· In the last stanza, where is the bird?
· What eerie vision does the speaker give in lines three & four?
· When else in the poem did he speak of shadows?
· Who or what might the Raven symbolize?
· What does it mean when the speaker says that the shadow on the floor shall be lifted nevermore? (He will always carry his guilt/mourning.)
· Who says nevermore?
· What conclusions can we draw about what effects the Raven has had on the speaker?
http://www.pdesas.org/module/content/resources/269/view.ashx
You may find the following link helpful:
Stanza Analysis
Think about:
1. What point of view
is used in this poem?
2. Characterize the
narrator’s state of mind. Find Two pieces of evidence to support this claim.
3. Find 5 descriptive
words about the raven from the poem.
4. Based on the descriptions of the bird, what
can the raven symbolize?
5. Why does Poe choose
to use a raven in this poem rather than a sparrow or a parrot?
6. How is the raven
sitting on the bust of Pallas (Athena) symbolic?
7. Find one line containing internal rhyme and
write it down.
8. Find one line containing alliteration and
write it down.
9. Name one allusion to Greek mythology in the
poem. Explain why Poe uses it.
10. Name one Biblical
allusion in the poem. Explain why Poe uses it.
11. What is the TONE of
the poem? Explain how Poe creates this tone using 2 examples. 12. What is the
MOOD of this poem? Explain how Poe creates this mood using 2 examples. 13. Some
people claim that the narrator of the poem has dreamed the entire episode. What
evidence can you find to support this?
14. Some people claim
that the narrator of the poem has gone mentally insane. What evidence can you
find to support this?
15. What do you think?
Is the narrator dreaming, mentally unstable or just filled with grief? Explain.
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