From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were-- I have not seen As others saw-- I could not bring My passions from a common spring— From the same source I have not taken My sorrow-- I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone-- And all I lov’d--I lov’d alone— Then-- in my childhood-- in the dawn Of a most stormy life-- was drawn From ev’ry depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still— From the torrent, or the fountain-- From the red cliff of the mountain— From the sun that ’round me roll’d In its autumn tint of gold— From the lightning in the sky As it pass’d me flying by-- From the thunder, and the storm— And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view-- Within alone, written by Edgar Allan Poe, there is a dire sense of isolation. This is one of the main poems that gives a direct glimpse into the mind of the great poet. The sound created by the dashes and eerie pauses of his writing gives a certain feel to the poem. The reader is made to feel every inch of silence as if Poe were reading it aloud to them. The particular uppercasing of "My" gives a slight dominance of the word over others until the pause is reached at the end of each line. When Poe particularly wrote, "And I lov'd/ lov'd alone," there is a depth felt by the reader so dark and luring that they cannot fight as they are encompassed by the surrounding darkness and silence of Poe's mind. Just when the reader thinks that is the lowest and eeriest they could possibly get or handle, Poe plummets deeper. He simply writes, "then". "Then". "Then" is the peak. The reader is left with a wanting and need to know what else he could possibly have to say in this isolated tale. After "then" the words begin to flow once more with vivid imagery of a dark gloomy night of his childhood. And again, there is the pause. Continuously, the words flow and then there is a familiar pause in the rhythm in which the thought is read. And upon the last line, it is revealed what had been haunting and lurking since the beginning of the poem and then there is no more. The poem is over. What happens next is left to imagination and the forever more truth of being alone.
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Within A City in the Sea, Poe immediately resorts to his signature dark mentality and take on death. Typically in Poe style, there is an exemplified Gothic setting. Rather than having the setting in a realistic place, Poe leads the tale to take place in a romantic land far away. This precise location adds to the mystery and apprehension felt by the reader throughout the poem. Aside from the previous poems discussed, the setting serves as the center frame of the poem; however, the personification of death holds a greater significance. The presence of death rules over the city, and from the perspective of a tower, he "looks gigantically down" upon his territory that has, "gaping graves." These gaping graves emphasize the grave nature of death that encompasses the land. Also considering that the poem states, "far down within the dim west," the connection is strengthened as it signifies distance from life and the direction in which the sun sets. Upon research, it was found that the direction of the sunset signifies death based on the beliefs of ancient egyptians.
After reading "The Raven," it has become a realization that Poe has a great fascination to expose the manifestation and devouring madness within people. Particularly within the poem, Poe uses imagery of this sole black bird to both precisely and ambiguously symbolize death and darkness. To further expand on that, yes a person has literally died, but also has the aching soul of the person left with a grieving heavy heart. Symbolically, The Raven brings people to term on the perception of death, supernatural occurrences, and a possible afterlife. Thus, this exact diction pulls dark thoughts to the forefront of the reader's mind and also perhaps memories of a death of a loved one.
To get more into the language use, The Raven repetitively states the word, "nevermore," throughout the poem. It is ironic that out of all the words used throughout the poem and the overall eerie nature Poe saturated it with, the fact that Poe used one word,"nevermore," to be consistently uttered by the raven, builds a suspense unmatched by the rest of the context. It could be the fact that with every building climax, the pure meaning of the word's utterance changes to a more dramatic connotation. But it could also be the maddening of the reader as they realize they have to make a decision to believe if the raven is actually speaking this word or if the narrator is inching more and more towards insanity as the word repeats itself within their head. Poe's use of the word, "nevermore," is a journey of the mind in itself. It fits into so many of the forever puzzle pieces of the poem as it could be interpreted as a reference to Lenore, but also foreshadowing the narrator's demise sure to come. The reader is in for a spine-chilling ride. |
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