The Raven
By Edgar Allen Poe
Elements of Poetry to examine:
SPEAKER:
the voice telling the poem
SYMBOL: a person, place, thing, or event that
stands for something else
RHYTHM: the pattern of stressed and unstressed
syllables
THEME: the poem’s meaning or main idea
DICTION: the poet’s word choice
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: metaphor, simile,
personification, hyperbole
MOTIF: reoccurrence of a word, phrase, or image in
service of theme
According to Poe:
“Beauty must be the atmosphere and essence of
a poem, and beauty’s tone is sadness”
“Beauty, of whatever kind, invariably excites the
sensitive soul to tears.”
“Melancholy, then, is the most legitimate of all
poetic tones.”
from
The Philosophy of Composition
Poe’s “The Raven” relies heavily on sound devices for
effect. These include (but are not limited to):
ALLITERATION: repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of
words
INTERNAL RHYME: a rhyme that occurs within a line
REFRAIN: a phrase or line that is regularly repeated, usually at the
end of a stanza
ASSONANCE: repetition of vowel sounds
METER: a generally regular patter of stressed and unstressed
syllables
In “The Raven”, these sound devices create a hypnotic
effect as the speaker descends into an increasingly
irrational world.
This almost creates a “shared” state of hallucination
Rhythm (revisited)
A. Verse
Rhyming verse
Blank verse (has rhythm, usually iambic pentameter, but
has no rhyme)
Free verse (has no regular rhythm or rhyme )
B. Rhythm
Poetic foot (a combination of stressed and unstressed
syllables)
anapest (~~/ ) iamb ( ~/) spondee (//) dactyl ( /~~)
trochee ( /~ )
Meter (the number of poetic feet in a line of poetry)
dipody (2 feet) triameter (3 feet) tetrameter (4 feet)
pentameter (5 feet) octameter (8 feet)
Now—while listening to
Christopher Walken narrate “The
Raven” consider the elements to
analyze and appreciate this
poem.
http://instruct.uwo.ca/mit/204f/audi
o/raven.mp3