Edgar Allen Poe and The
Dark/Gothic Romantics
• Like the other Romantic writers, Edgar Allen
Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman
Melville valued intuition and the imagination
over logic and reason.
Edgar Allen Poe and The
Dark Romantics
• However, they held a less optimistic view
of the world and acknowledged the
existence of sin, pain, and evil in human
life.
Poe and The Dark/Gothic
Romantics
• Their work explored the conflict between
good and evil, the psychological effects of
guilt and sin, and even madness.
Art by the Dark/Gothic Romantics
Art by the Dark/Gothic Romantics
The Nightmare – John Henry Fuseli
Edgar Allen Poe
• Master of the
psychological
thriller/mystery
• Wanted readers to leave
the rational world and
discover the unsettling,
dark truths of the human
mind
• Orphaned at age three,
he said, “the want of
parental affection has
been the heaviest of my
trials.”
“The Raven”
• Poe sold the poem “The
Raven” for $9 in 1845.
• Despite it’s overwhelming
success, he died nearly
broke.
• He compared writing the
poem to solving a
mathematical problem, and
claimed to have written the
final stanzas first.
SYMBOLISM
• A person, place, thing, or event in a piece of
writing that has meaning in itself, but that
also represents something larger—often
something abstract, like a human emotion or
universal experience—beyond the story.
SYMBOLISM
• For example, the “traveler” in “The Tide
Rises, the Tide Falls” could symbolize
the temporary nature of human life.
SYMBOLISM
• In Herman
Melville’s Moby
Dick, the whale
represents
something bigger
than…just a
whale—namely,
human obsession
with an
unattainable goal.
SLANT RHYME
• A rhyme that is not exact, such
as:
• follow/fellow or mastery/mystery
or rain/again or sting/being
Pp 436-440
1) What is the poem’s rhyme scheme?
2) A. Copy the part of the line in stanza
three that contains personification
B. What inhuman thing is given what
human characteristic?
3) What choices does Poe make that help
us infer that Lenore is a woman the
speaker was romantically involved with?
The Raven
4) a. What is the mood at the beginning
of the poem? (Give an adjective NOT in
the poem) Not sure what mood is? Look
at your Tone Word handout.
b. List at least five word choices from the
first three stanzas that create the mood
you wrote for a.
The Raven
5) List the words that create alliteration
in line 26
6) a. What example of figurative
language can be found in line 31?
b. Explain how the example meets the
definition.
The Raven
7) Why does the speaker initially think
that “Nevermore” is the bird’s name?
8) 11th stanza (lines 61-66). Decode this
stanza into everyday language. It’s tricky!
9) 13th stanza (lines 73-78). Copy an
example of assonance.
The Raven
10) a. What is the speaker’s tone in stanza
15 (lines 85-90)? (Get out your tone word
handout!)
b. What diction choices create that tone?
c. How does Poe’s syntax (his use of
multiple dashes) in this stanza help
convey the speaker’s tone?
11) What is the internal slant rhyme in
lines 85 and 91?
The Raven
• 12) After reading the final stanza, what do
you think the Raven symbolizes? Don’t just
give a one word answer. Defend and explain
your choice. Consider what the raven does
and says in the story of the poem.
• Once students have answered #12, go
onto the next slide.
Poe on the “The Raven”
I asked myself - 'Of all melancholy topics,
what... is the most melancholy?' Death - was
the obvious reply. 'And when,' I said, 'is this
most melancholy of topics most poetical?'...
'When it most closely allies itself to Beauty:
the death, then, of a beautiful woman is,
unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the
world -- and equally is it beyond doubt that
the lips best suited for such topic are those of
a bereaved lover.'" ~ Edgar Allan Poe, "The
Philosophy of Composition," 1846