28.

The Raven: Structure, Themes, Unity of Effect

The Raven is Poe’s masterwork, thought to be his best poem structurally and content-wise.
Poe elaborated the creation of this poem in his work „The Philosophy of Composition“.
Structure
Alternation of 3 metres: octometre, hectametre and tetrametre, for the purpose of swift
trochaic rhythm
The rhyme scheme is constantly ABCBBB
The rhythmic model for this poem was a work by Elizabeth Barret – Lady Geraldine’s
Courtship
Lots of good alliteration. Poe took great pride in his technical skills.
A perfect poem should be 100 lines long, so that it could be readable at a single sitting – The
Raven has 108 lines
Gothic story elements in the poem + detective story elements, as the poem builds suspense
Themes
Death of a beautiful woman: A constant theme in Poe’s works. According to „Philosophy of
Composition“, a perfect poem should evoke a mood of melancholy, with the theme being
beauty – therefore death of a beautiful woman is a perfect theme. E.A. Poe was surrounded
by deaths of several women, one of whom was his own mother, and later his own wife
Virginia. The women in his works are not real characters, they are blank slates for their male
lovers to inscribe their stories and emotions in. Lenore is the perfect example of this woman.
Longing for a lover and a surrogate mother: this theme is very closely related to the first one,
and it is very personal. In these beautiful women who died Poe and his narrator always seeks
either for a lover or a mother he lost.
The Supernatural: this poem is widely known for the feeling of terror and gloom it provokes
for the reader, simply because of its supernatural elements. The setting, the state of the lover
and his isolation are one part of the theme. The raven itself is an element of supernatural – a
ghastly bird coming in the room of a scholar at a late hour, uttering words that scare him out
of his wits. The narrator is in a numb state between walking and sleeping, life and death, the
perfect basics for a supernatural setting.
Life in death and death in life: The narrator is obsessed with death, and is desperately trying
to bring his lost Lenore to life; the other solution would be his own death and seeing his lost
love in Heaven. The state of the narrator is exactly this: a numb feeling of being alive, stuck
between death and life. The raven serves to bridge the gap between the two worlds – he is a
messenger from heaven or hell. „Plutonian shore“ – after Pluto, Greek god of underworld.
Questioning of faith: dualistic theme, as through the poem, the narrator questions his faith in
God and the afterlife, as well as his own faith in Lenore and his love for her. In the end he
returns to the „god he loves“ and the thought of his darling.
Alienation and loneliness: at the very beginning, we are faced with the fact that the narrator is
located in a distant and secluded place, far from civilization and far from those he loves. This
theme is necessary for the overall feeling of melancholy in the poem.
The End: a feeling of finality undergoes through the whole song. With notions such as
midnight and December, the end of a day and the end of a year, we see the glimpses of a
nearing ending (death) for the narrator
Unity of Effect
Poe took this concept from ancient Greek philosophers and writers. A good work of art should
have a unity of time, space and action.
Poe implemented this unity in his work, elaborating his methods in „Philosophy of
Composition“
The work must have a unity: of time, subject, matter, action, tone etc.
The location of the narrator is very luxurious and secluded – parallels with ancient Greek
mythology
An artists should start a poem by thinking of what effect he wants the poem to have on the
reader
All poems should be about beauty. People should not seek truth in art but beauty.
Didactic poetry = no poetry.
The perfect poem should evoke sadness as an emotion.
The tone should be melancholy.
Subject matter and theme: the death of a beautiful woman, as the perfect combination of
beauty and melancholy.
A poem should be only 100 lines long, so it can be read in a single sitting.