Edgar Allan Poe and Close Reading Response to The Raven and The Lake - Essay Example

Edgar Allan Poe and Close Reading Response to “The Raven” and “The Lake” Born the year 1809 in Boston, MA to parents who separated during his early youth, Edgar Allan Poe grew up with a natural passion for writing and profound thoughts despite financial crisis and personal conflicts with the guardians who took custody of him until the stage of full independence. Though reared to become involved in corporate matters by the Allans, his foster parents, Poe had been more inclined to engage himself in the literary endeavor of writing poetries and short stories that depict themes of horror and mystery. It serves as an interesting piece of information to learn that Poe regarded poetics with a value significantly higher than the opportunity to profit monetarily through his family’s business. For the major part, he wrote poems to the level of genius instead of analyzing the market to the extent that he neglected duties of social essence as he struggled for the sake of love and good economy via literary means. “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, and “The Lake” were among Poe’s most celebrated timeless compositions in which a mixture of subjects that signify nature, beauty myth, love, tragedy, and fright are conveyed. His notable works of fiction led to his wide recognition as “Father of the Detective Story” inspiring other prominent authors especially Arthur Conan Doyle. In “The Raven”, Edgar Allan Poe addresses the theme of tragic longing through a character who seems locked in his chamber and has plunged himself into the pool of knowledge as if hoping that emerging wise thought can render for him a cure from despair. So in the initial setting may be pictured the speaker who claims to be in pondering among old books or what he describes as “many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore” until something comes as a mild disturbance that would gradually satisfy his curiosity of the world beyond his lonely chamber. As he wishes to unravel any suspense or mystery after the chamber door, however, he would be confronted with “nothing more.” The second stanza reveals the speaker’s sorrow for the “lost Lenore” and Poe makes use of the name Lenore even in his other works signifying that the woman bearing such name must be immensely special as to create the primary conflict which the chief character in the poem would be found struggling to overcome. Between the “rapping” at the chamber door and the sorrowful feeling of loss of a beloved rises an element of terrifying suspicion as indicated in the third stanza so that the man eventually supposes “Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door.” Then comes the point of departure from oneself, from the comfort zone as the speaker enters the outside of the chamber, and starts to seek after certain answers, as though to find relief in this certainty that his summon of “Sir” and “Madam” might be attended to by something or someone at a later time. At this stage, the reader could be caught in between deciding whether a ghost or something else would appear to confirm where the strange annoying sound comes from. Into the depth of darkness, the man confesses having figured mixed emotions of “wondering, fearing, / Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” by which he could not help to grieve from the recollection of “Lenore”. With no further clues, nevertheless, the speaker returns to his chamber and patiently allows the haunting to proceed or for darkness to continue to follow him and be engulfed by the space inside until there occurs some relevant response or that which is able to materialize vague speculation to some degree of truth for him. As anticipated, silence is broken at the louder tapping via the lattice window where he suddenly thinks of exploring the mystery and discovers ‘Tis the wind and nothing more!’ but a little afterwards, fluttering takes place and this time, the speaker does not only hear for he can also see ‘what perched’ above his chamber door. To this extent, the reader becomes acquainted with the “raven” whose perching action the man notes with some intent focus prior to a peculiar observation of the “bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling.” Here, the narrator likely expresses a feeling of comfort for the amusement toward the raven implies a sign of company to become relieved with somehow of the awfully sad remembrances of the past. When he mentions “Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door”, he could be imagined to have uttered ‘bust of Pallas’ with an enthusiastic tone since Pallas is known to be a Greek titan god of war craft which may well represent power and at that moment, the speaker looks to have mustered strength to be able to defeat the main enemy -- the tragedy of losing the most loved ‘Lenore’. ‘Raven’ is a bird of mystery and omen and Poe is bound to establish a resolution with it in connection to the speaker who yearns for the settlement of his unrest and brokenness. While each ‘nothing more’ is said without pertinent or useful meaning in the preceding stanzas, the arrival of the raven, apparently symbolic of hope, replaces the ending phrase with “Nevermore”. It is such a sight of wonder that the speaker admits “Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, / Though its answer little meaning -- little relevancy bore”. The raven referred to as the ‘bird of yore’ proclaims no other word than ‘nevermore’ like this ought to register to any person who is destined to encounter it by jinx or fortune. At first, the man feels confused in attempting to discern the meaning of ‘nevermore’ but as he is brought into a realization, he yields to clearer understanding that the raven, whether bird or devil, is sent over for the lamenting speaker to accept oblivion and bury Lenore to such state as would prevent him from suffering any further with resentment. On the other hand, in Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Lake’, the poet addresses himself as the subject in ‘spring of youth’ who has grown to find out what the nature of the spot is, he refers to as the wild lake. It appears that he is up to sharing a very significant experience he would like to inspire and stimulate imagination through readers comprising of the young individuals and a more general audience who have not taken tough risks in life yet. He necessitates having such body of water for the setting as it reflects certain attributes the speaker would later realize to effect a life-changing moral to his initial perceptions in youth as the poem develops from the early encounter of the lake. With the youth’s dynamic potentials and attitude to frolic during spring, that is the age of serious discovery or of intently satisfying curiosity, the author confesses of aggressively exploring the ‘wide world’ he compares with ‘the lake’. By saying ‘The which I could not love the less’ collectively alludes the material things in the world he gets engrossed with or would not seem to have enough of. As if everything he ever dreamed of is found in the perishable world, so he further accounts for the ‘loneliness’ which he rather finds lovely and at this stage, the poet indicates how selfish a young aggressive person could get as he sees the world alone and that nothing else matters for the moment. The poet utilizes concrete imagery on describing the view of the lake at the beginning ‘with black rock bound, And the tall pines that towered around’ for the purpose of contrasting it with ‘poisonous wave’ and ‘in its gulf a fitting grave’ which are allusions that suit the maturity of expressing the lesson which the poet is bound to learn in the process. On personifying the wind to be ‘mystic’ and ‘murmuring in melody’, as well as the night’s action with ‘had thrown her pall’, E.A. Poe signifies the reference to the doom which the youth is likely to confront on being led to a wasted life filled with depression as a consequence of living life on the edge or having plenty of unnecessary cares that bring grief to humans in the end. ‘The Lake’ is made to progress from a scenario wherein it occurs or feels easy to think of beauty and wonders into sudden fate that completely reverses the original picture the time the gloomy night arrives. Not long after the transition however, the person clarifies that it is not something to be hugely upset about, and this is manifested through the description given for the wind. Instead of a sweeping action, it is rendered void of speed with the use alliterative phrase ‘murmuring in melody’ which characterizes the person’s view of life in response to trials or challenges that come his way. When one is made strong by specific virtues in learning how to cope with struggles in life, he is the type of individual who is capable of handling troubles or unfavorable tides with a sense of balance and confidence and is not instantly consumed by sorrows made by trifling deeds of tender age as symbolized in ‘Yet that terror was not fright.’ Equivalently, Poe suggests that there is never a perfect picture or permanence with an ideal situation, in time it would necessarily have to undergo certain changes be it small or large and people ought to keep watch and be prepared. There seems to be a shift in low and smooth tone to abrupt utterance in the middle ‘Then-ah then I would awake / To the terror of the lone lake’ yet after this, the speaker goes back to original calmness and sounds hopeful towards the end. A man of happy disposition who grows out of immature ways of the world takes no grave deal with life’s occasional worries and even brings out a remarkable perspective out of appalling circumstances as maybe sensed in the last three lines ‘To his lone imagining – Whose solitary soul could make An Eden of that dim lake’. Works Cited “Edgar Allan Poe – Biography.” Bio – True Story. 1996 – 2013. Web. 10 June 2013. http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160?page=1. Behme, H. “The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe (First Published in 1845).” 4 Oct 2007. Web. 10 June 2013. http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html. Poe, E.A. “The Lake.” PoetryArchive. 2002. Web. 11 June 2013. http://www.poetry-archive.com/p/the_lake.html. Read More