An Analysis Of Edgar Allan Poe s The Raven - 1954 Words

The three authors, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Bradstreet, and Emily Dickinson, had poems in which they explored the common theme of death. Their unique views on death, as reflected in their poems, tells us of the different ways people looked at death during their respective times. In this essay, I will explore and explain three poems of Edgar Allan Poe, and one from Anne Bradstreet and Emily Dickinson respectively, and then compare the differences between the three authors. In Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven, he uses symbols to describe and allude to death. In the poem, he mourns the death of his young love, his wife, referred to here as Lenore. The most obvious symbol is the raven. The raven enters the room imperiously and holds dominion over†¦show more content†¦To him, the raven is a messenger from the devil, and so it also lives in the underworld. Pluto is the Roman god of the underworld, and Pluto’s shore would, naturally, be the underworld. Combined with the word â€Å"night†, a complete picture of of death and nothingness is drawn. The narrator wishes to see Lenore again in the afterlife, but the raven mocks him by saying â€Å"Nevermore†, telling him that he shall never see her again, in his life or the afterlife. The poem shows the absolute grief, despair, and devastation that Poe, or the narrator, feels over the death of their loved ones. In Poe’s other poem, Annabel Lee, Poe again explores the theme of death. The narrator is obsessed with how and why Annabel Lee died, and who he can blame for it. Both Annabel Lee and the narrator were children, but they â€Å"loved with a love that was more than love /†¦/ With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven / Coveted her and me.† [2] The narrator believed that the angels envied them so much that they sent down a wind that chilled Annabel Lee and killed her. â€Å"The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, / Went envying her and me - / Yes! - that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the see) / That the wind came out of the cloud by night, / Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.† [3] He is in grief and haunted by her death, and thinks that it was unjust that she should have been taken from him so abruptly, when they were still only children. Poe’s poem’s setting has