The Raven A sample response to literature to show you what ...

The Raven – A sample response to literature to show you what to do.

Hook Examples:

Who hasn't heard of Edgar Allen Poe's epic poem The Raven?
"Quoth the Raven, Nevermore" is a famous line from one of the most well known
poems, The Raven.
"I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity" is a quote from Edgar
Allen Poe, the father of the horror story.

Poe, an American poet, critic, and short story writer, lived from 1809-1849. He was
born in Massachusetts, the son of actors Elizabeth Hopkins and David Poe. Poe was three
years old when his mother died of tuberculosis. He went to live with Frances and John
Allan, a wealthy merchant in Richmond, Virginia. He lived a life of luxury but was never
formally adopted by them. He was devastated when his surrogate mother Frances died
from tuberculosis when he was twenty years old. By the age of twenty, he had already lost
two of the most important people in his life. Poe married a young girl named Virginia who
became sick shortly after they married and ended up dying from tuberculosis within five
years. Poe's early tragedies shaped the type of man he became and the sad and depressing
literature he chose to write. Edgar Allen Poe's epic poem, "The Raven", is brought to life
through his remarkable use of mood, characterization, plot, and creative literary devices.

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The Raven – A sample response to literature to show you what to do.

Paragraph 2 Sample Pink Commentary/Green Concrete Details

The Raven is haunting, chilling, and full of terror. Poe sets the mood of The Raven
through his extensive vocabulary and use of symbols. The Raven takes place in a lonely man’s
bedroom; however, Poe in his infinite wisdom chooses to call this room a “chamber” thus
encouraging the reader to feel the isolation that the narrator feels. The overall mood is somber
and melancholy. For example, the poem begins with, “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I
pondered weak and weary.” – Concrete Detail This line clearly establishes the setting. It is
midnight, cold, and dreary. The narrator is weak and weary. All of this adds to the overall sad
and weary tone. Poe also uses the symbols of the raven, the ending of a year, and the ending of a
day to signify death. – Commentary In the line, “Ah distinctly, I remember it was in the bleak
December,” Poe is not only setting the cold and isolated state of the weather, but also the
significance of the ending of another year. This ending of a day and year symbolizes the eternal
ending of death. (Poe, 1845)

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Poe uses many creative poetic devices to contribute to the reader’s enjoyment of the
poem. He uses rhyme, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and assonance in creative ways to make the
poem flow rhythmically. For example, the entire poem is written with sixteen syllables in each
line, each line repeating the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. This adds to the sing-
song quality of the poem. Poe also uses alliteration to stress important points in the plot as
evidenced in the line, “While I nodded nearly napping” and “Tis’ some visitor entreating
entrance.” Onomatopoeia consonance and assonance are all evidenced in the poem in the line,
“While each silken, saddened rustling of each purple curtain thrilled me, filled me…” Poe also

The Raven – A sample response to literature to show you what to do.

utilizes the elements of internal rhyme and end rhyme as evidenced by the following lines, “Once
upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary” and “Tis’ some visitor entreating
entrance at my chamber door, only this and nothing more”. (Poe, 1845)

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The plot of The Raven is highly complex in nature. Although there are only two
characters, the narrator and the raven, Poe uses his creativity to compose a psychological thriller.
As stated earlier, Poe uses many creative literary devices to make the poem come alive. His
extensive use of mood as well as vivid vocabulary choices draws the reader into the story
causing the reader to feel the same anxiety as the narrator. The poem begins with a lonely, old
man who is deep in despair over the loss of loving wife, Lenore. He is trying to forget her on a
“midnight, dreary” when a mysterious raven lands outside his window. At first the man in
intrigued thinking the bird has wisdom to share, since the bird “perches on the bust of Pallas”,
the goddess of wisdom. However through a tirade of questions, the man soon begins to think that
the bird is a demon with its incessant quoting of the phrase” Nevermore.” By the end of the
poem, the man is spiraling into madness as he cannot stop the bird’s quoting “Nevermore.” At
the end, there is no clear resolution. Poe leaves it up to the reader to decide as to whether or not
the man finally goes insane through his grief, the man finally dies from depression, or is the man
simply lost in a dream. (Poe, 1845)

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Edgar Allan Poe once stated, “I would define, in brief, the poetry of words as the
rhythmical creation of Beauty.” Not only did he believe this to be true, but he demonstrated it in
his remarkable writing abilities. Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is still one of the most widely

The Raven – A sample response to literature to show you what to do.

read and studied American poems of all time. Through Poe’s creative plot and characterization
he establishes a setting which creates a spine tingling chill among his readers. Poe was a master
at utilizing literary devices, as evidenced through his poem, with his use of rhyme, meter,
alliteration, assonance, and consonance. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven is destined by
studied and analyzed by generations to come. May it always serve as an example of the original
psychological thriller, evermore.