The Raven: With original illustrations - annotated

OVERVIEW

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 nineteenth century. Romanticism here refers to a literary movement of the late 1700s and 1800s which focused on the emotional life of the individual and curiosity about the self. This movement complemented a larger geopolitical and ideological shift in the United States. As a young nation forged a path into the West, so its writers and philosophers explored the unknown territory of the human mind.

Some Romantic poets, like the transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, saw potential for positive revelations within the self. Reflecting his belief in the inherent goodness of people, Emerson’s poetry spotlights lovely elements like natural features, water, and light. Poe, on the other hand, was interested in plumbing the darker depths of the human psyche. He uses gloomy Gothic set pieces and nightmarish sequences to suggest that self-reliance and turning inwards results not in enlightenment, but terror and anxiety. The human mind, Poe contends, needs no assistance from spooky It is fully capable of creating horror from within. This theme of self-generated, internal 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 as the creator of the modern short story, and his tales, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Cask of Amontillado” are among the most widely known in the literary world. His critical opinions were also influential, especially the idea that poetry must be musical, that it should focus on beauty over truth, and that it must elevate the soul.

Poe desired above all to be known as a poet, though he only wrote around fifty poems in total. His narrative poem “The Raven” is his most popular work, though others such as “Annabel Lee” and “Ulalume” are also widely read. Poe’s poetry features rigid rhyme schemes and stanza patterns. His speakers are always unnamed males—though it is tempting to read his poems as autobiographical, it is more likely that they represent an exercise in the subjective exploration of emotion, as did the works of other Romantic poets of his time. Poe’s speakers often embark on a literal journey or a journey of the mind. Starting from a place of rational credibility, they are gradually unseated and made unreliable by their emotions. “The Raven” fits this mold. The poem came to be associated so powerfully with Poe that the author himself is sometimes referred to as “the Raven.”

Poet Biography

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts on January 19, 1809, but spent most of his youth in the South. His father, David Poe, abandoned the family while Poe was young; his mother, the actress Elizabeth Poe, died soon after the family’s move to Richmond, Virginia. Poe took the name “Allan” from his foster father there, John Allan.

After years of private schooling, Poe enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1826. He excelled in Classics and Modern Languages, but left the following year after racking up substantial gambling debts. Financial troubles would plague Poe throughout his life. His poverty drove him to write popular (and financially lucrative) works, and he proved to have an eye for up-and-coming trends in the publishing world. After a brief stint in the army, Poe served variously as editor, contributor, and literary critic for publications throughout the eastern seaboard.