Edgar Allan Poe (1809 —1849)

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 —1849)

E.A.POE'S LIFE AND WORKS

E.A.POE'S LIFE

"Edgar Allan Poe is dead," read the obituary. "This announcement will startle many, but few will be grieved by it. The poet was known, personally or by reputation, in all this country; he had readers in England, and in several of the states of Continental Europe; but he had few or no friends; and the regrets for his death will be suggested principally by the consideration that in him literary art has lost one of its most brilliant but erratic stars."

That incredibly nasty appraisal ran six days after Poe was found, disheveled and unconscious, in the gutter of a Baltimore street. Poe lived, barely, for four more delirious days before dying of causes still unknown. The obituary was written by his greatest literary rival, a man named Rufus Grismold. Griswold, not content with his handiwork in the obituary, also published a libelous Poe biography full of lies shortly after the poet's untimely death. Add all that to the tall tales that Poe told about himself during his lifetime, and you might begin to understand how Edgar Allan Poe has become, in death, one of the best-loved but least understood writers in American literature.

Poe was a master of the short story and narrative poem. He had a gift for suspense and delightfully twisted plots. But his real gift was his ability to understand that part of our psyche that craves the macabre. He could see into the darkest corners of the human mind. As a man who lived and died in poverty—and as a man whose loved ones perished one by one of consumption (a.k.a.tuberculousis)—it's possible that Poe knew those dark places so well because he had so often been there himself. 

Not that Poe was all serious. He described his stories as "half banter, half satire." He wrote spooky stories in part because he knew they would sell. He sometimes veered into sensationalism for the sake of being sensational, and did so with a winking acknowledgement to readers that he was writing schmaltz on purpose. Though he professed to be in the writing business just for the money, Poe nonetheless changed American literature forever. You don't need to look much farther than today's bestseller lists to see that America still loves a good suspense story. According to Steven King, who knows a thing or two about telling a scary story, he and his colleagues are all "the children of Poe."

ABOUT THE POET AND THE POEM "THE RAVEN':

BEFORE YOU START STUDYING THE POEM "THE RAVEN" READ POE'S ESSAY "THE PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION" AND USE THE STUDY GUIDE.

PHILOSOPHY OF COMPOSITION

Study Guide The Philosophy of Composition Click here

THE RAVEN

LISTEN TO THE POEM "THE RAVEN''

Read the poem "The Raven" (pink booklet pp.76-82) and get ready to discuss it in class. 

The first links  to consider   Study Guide The Raven  &  Explaining the Raven

Also read:

THE RAVEN(1)
THE RAVEN(2)
THE RAVEN(3)
THE RAVEN (4)
THE RAVEN (5)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

“The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe -- Reading Comprehension 1. What is the gothic literary genre? What are its characteristics?  2. What is the setting of this poem? (Time of year and place)    3. Whom is the speaker mourning in this poem?    4. What is the speaker’s first reaction to the “tapping” at his door?    How does it change in the fourth stanza (line 19)?    5. What does the speaker discover when he first opens the door? What does he then discover outside his window lattice?    6. What word does the Raven continue to repeat?  Why is this significant?    7. With what emotion does the speaker first greet the Raven?    8. How does the speaker’s attitude toward the Raven change throughout their encounter?    9. Reread lines 85-90. What does the speaker want the Raven to tell him?    10. What does the speaker order the Raven to do in the second to last stanza?    11. At the end of the poem, what does the speaker mean when he says the Raven “still is sitting” above the door? (Literally and figuratively)    12. What does the Raven finally come to represent?    13. How are the elements of gothic literature evident in “The Raven”?  Literary Elements as applied to “The Raven” SETTING ·                     How did the poem begin? ·                     Where was the speaker? ·                     What types of images did the speaker draw for us? ·                     What time of year was it? ·                     What type of atmosphere did the speaker make us feel? ·                     What type of character was the speaker? ·                     What connection can we make between the setting and the speaker? TIME ·                     How long did the poem take place? A day, week, etc.? ·                     What reference does the speaker make to the Raven? ·                     What physical objects help to define the time period? ·                     When was Poe's time? PROTAGONIST ·                     Who is the main character? ·                     What do we know about him? ·                     By the conclusion of the poem, is he a static or dynamic character? ANTAGONIST ·                     Who is the ‘bad’ character of the poem? Why? ·                     What does it do to the speaker? ·                     By the conclusion of the poem, is he a static or dynamic character? CONFLICT ·                     Man vs. Nature (symbolism of Raven) ·                     Man vs. Self (power of the mind/imagination) POINT OF VIEW ·                     Who tells the poem? CLIMAX ·                     Where does the speaker's imagination take control of his mind? THEME ·                     If someone is dead, are they dead in all ways? ·                     How do you relate to the story?