Adjectives to Describe Edgar Allan Poe's Poetry: Literary Analysis of "The Raven" | Free Essay

Although Edgar Allan Poe’s works were never recognized during his short life, he is now known for his contributions to the detective and horror genres. Moreover, his vivid descriptions of the dark emotions, insanity, and existential crises formed a unique writing style that influenced generations of writers, musicians, and filmmakers. This essay will discuss the literary techniques and tools Edgar Allan Poe uses in “The Raven” to create vivid imagery, increase tension and suspense, and build a melodic rhythm throughout the lengthy poem.

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Melancholic and Haunting

Edgar Allan Poe is known for his distinct writing style and the dark themes raised in his works. Driven by personal losses, the author lets readers experience and process the same feelings of loss, grief, desperation, and disconnect from the outside world through his works, including “The Raven”.

The poem opens with a narrator’s lonely musings about his loss when a strange visitor comes to his window, a raven. Poe starts painting the melancholic and dark atmosphere of the narrative from the first line, where we learn the narrator is “weak and weary” on a “midnight dreary”. The author continues to use powerful words that add to the image throughout the poem. For example, we learn it was “bleak December” and “each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor”. The latter is also an example of Poe’s continued interest in the macabre topics and human existence beyond the veil of death.

Moreover, in “The Raven”, the author returns to some of his favorite themes of the subconscious mind and hallucinations, providing answers to existential questions. For example, the narrator several times reminds us he was almost asleep, i.e., “while I nodded, nearly napping”, “but the fact is I was napping“, or “dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before”. Therefore, readers can write off the narrator’s talk with the raven as a product of his unconscious mind. However, the narrator’s internal struggle with accepting the loss of Lenore is not resolved by the end of the poem. Instead, his experience with the raven further exacerbates the despair and loneliness the narrator experiences at the beginning of the poem.

Deathly Symbolism

Like in many of Edgar Allan Poe’s works, the themes of loneliness, death, and grief are prominent in “The Raven”. The bird itself is a symbol of death, or at least its harbinger, which Poe’s narrator describes as a “thing of evil”, “bird of devil”, and “bird of fiend”. Even the description of the bird’s physical attributes holds macabre elements. For example, lines like “to the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core” and “his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming” demonstrate that the narrator clearly perceives the bird as an evil omen or even a demon sent to torment his soul in his grief and loneliness after the loss of Lenore.

Moreover, “The Raven” raises the topic of the afterlife, which Poe returned to in multiple works. In the poem, the narrator asks the bird, whom he considers the messenger from the higher powers, about the fate of his beloved Lenore’s soul. The narrator lives in the hopes of seeing her again in the afterlife, mirroring the beliefs many of Poe’s contemporaries shared. However, the raven does not appease the narrator’s hopes and keeps repeating “nevermore”, which heightens the desperation and grief, culminating in the last lines of the poem “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted—nevermore!”.

Musical and Rhythmic

In “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe uses some of his favorite literary elements to make the verses fall into a comfortable rhythm. One of the commonly used literary elements is the repetition of specific words and phrases. Some, like “visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door” and “above my chamber door,” are repeated twice in separate verses to keep the narrative running smoothly and supporting the rhythm. Others, such as “nevermore”, appear throughout the poem, uttered by the narrator and the raven. Aside from building tension and despair in the narrator and the readers, a variation of the phrase (nothing more, evermore, etc.) wraps up every verse, supporting cohesiveness and driving the melodic rhythm of the poem.

Another literary technique Poe uses to establish the melody of “The Raven” is the use of multiple adjectives to qualify nouns. For example, he calls a book “quaint and curious” and the bird’s decorum “grave and stern” while describing the raven as “ghastly grim and ancient”. These multiple adjectives help the author paint vivid imagery while also supporting the rhythm of the verses.

Moreover, Edgar Allan Poe is also known for his use of alliteration to enhance the impact of his verses. He relies on this literary tool in “The Raven” by combining words starting with the same consonants. For instance, “grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt”, “doubting, dreaming dreams”, “flirt and flutter”, and “followed fast and followed faster”. Aside from adding to the imagery by using strong descriptive adjectives, Poe leverages alliteration to ramp up the tension and create a sense of uneasiness and suspense in the readers.

In conclusion, “The Raven” is a prime example of Edgar Allan Poe’s distinct writing style, filled with melancholic and haunting language that paints a vivid picture of the despair and loneliness plaguing the narrator. The author uses his well-honed techniques to weave in the themes of loss and death through symbolism while introducing repetitions and alliterations to establish a flowing melodic rhythm of the verses. “The Raven” is a testament of Poe’s deep understanding of the darkest human emotions and his mastery of literary devices to invoke the same feelings in readers.