Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849)

A Brief Introduction to Poe

1. Poe has been among the greatest poets and the most popular of American authors due to his great literary success. He is also the first American professional writer and the first writer of detective story in the world.

2. Poe’s works, which include fiction, legend, Gothic tales, poetry, and critical articles, are directed toward universal human responses, thus the passage of time and ages can hardly change their values.

3. Poe’s view: Poe held that the function of poetry is not to summarize and interpret earthly experience, but to create a mood in which soul soars toward supernal beauty. Poe insisted that the creation of the work of art requires the utmost concentration and unity, as well as the most scrupulous use of words.

Poe’s Works:1. Major Short Stories: The Imp of the Perverse The Masque of the Red Death The Purloined Letter MS Found in the Bottle The Fall of the House of Usher 2.The Poems: Annabel Lee To Helen Sonnet—To Science The Raven3.The Critical Essays: The Poetic Principle The Philosophy of Composition

Poe’s Poetics Implied in The Philosophy of Composition:

1. A poem should be short, readable at one sitting.2. A poem is to produce a feeling of beauty. “… the death … of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.”3. “Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. Melancholy is thus the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.”4.Poetry is “the rhythmical creation of beauty”.

A Brief Introductio to The Raven

1. an elegy, expressing the sorrow or grief over somebody’s sudden death2. 108 lines, readable at one sitting3. tone: melancholy4. rhyming scheme: abcbbb5. 18 six-line stanzas, the first five lines trochaic octameter, and the sixth line a trochaic tetrameter

' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇOnce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' (ˇ)Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' (ˇ) ' ˇ ' ˇWhile I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' (ˇ)As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

' ˇ ' ˇ '(ˇ)' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' (ˇ)"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door—

' ˇ ' ˇ ' ˇ ' (ˇ)                 Only this, and nothing more."

The Interpretation into Themes in The Rave

n:

1. The “I” stands for an insane person in t

he insane world.

2. The raven represents the mystic existe

nce and death image.

3. The ture love only exists in a fantasy an

d daydream.