The Raven

[Haunted]

I have always wanted to draw this poem out into a discussion. This section is called Books, but let's revamp it to Literature for a mo.

Does anyone get the true horror of this poem besides me? Do you understand why it's scary? Lisa Simpson didn't and that shocked me.

First you have to understand the nature of the raven and what this very symbolic bird represents. The raven has always been a bird of the occult. Ravens are said to see into the realms of the read (and other worlds) and carry messages from said plays. So, you've got the element of death right here. Ravens are also oracular, meaning that they can see into the future.

So cuz is sitting in his study/library pining over his dead lover, Lenore (by the way there is another poem by E.A. Poe called Lenore (She dies). In flies this raven, and in Victorian, pre Victorian a raven was seen as ill fortune, sits above the bust of Pallas (a.ka. Athena the Goddess of Wisom. Not that Athena is also a maiden Goddess).

So everytime he beseeches the Raven to speek, what's on his mind? Lenore. That's why the raven answers: Nevermore. There are two ways of seeing this and both suck.

The raven has no forsight into the land of the dead, because there is none. Dead is dead, and Mr. Piny will never ever see her again in this life or any other, giving the gloom of ultimate putrification and END. OR! Once moving on from this life, he'll never see Lenore again in any form or lifetime. She's lost to him.

In otherwords, the Raven knows what's behind the veil, but won't say anything but "Nevermore." That's Never-fucking-more. The two of them are divided by death or if not just death then life too.

By the end of the poem the Raven is a permanent fixture on the Bust of Pallas, its shadow cast on the floor. The Raven is his permanent reminded that Lenore is gone. Death is fixed in his house. His very house has become a tomb, but this knowledge is draining his life essence away from him.

Put yourself in his shoes. Even if the Raven is psychological, he states that the beak is in his heart.

[Doc Faustus]

My plan (my school's equivalent to a senior thesis) was going to be on Poe and Dante in part, and the Raven is indeed scary in its depiction of loss. Ghosts for him represent errors in judgment and the things we have to live with and without at the same time. The Raven is like Dante's third circle where souls in love are tossed by storms, unable to touch hands. It's the nightmare of separation embodied, and perhaps a bit of existential uncertainty. This poem is so impressive because it manages to do that. There's very little horror nowadays that deals with this great big fear and yet it's so substantial and such a big part of our psyche. Carnival of Souls goes into it, though from a different angle. I think the closest thing philosophically to it, would be Pet Sematary, which is all about our understandings of death, how warped they are and how much separation weighs us down.