28.

The Raven: Structure, Themes, Unity of Effect

The Raven is Poes masterwork, thought to be his best poem structurally and content-wise. Poe elaborated the creation of this poem in his work The Philosophy of omposition!. "part from describing the creation of his work, Poe also deals with the structure, themes and unity of effect of the poem. #hen it comes to the structure, the poem consists of the alternation of $ metres, octometre, hectametre and tetrametre, for the purpose of swift trochaic rhythm. "ll three metres are trochaic, a long syllable followed by a short one. The first stan%a consists of eight of these feet, the second of seven and a half, the third of eight, the fourth of seven and a half, the fifth the same and finally the si&th of three and a half. The rhyme scheme is constantly "' '''. The rhythmic model for this poem was a work by (li%abeth 'arret ) *ady +eraldines ourtship. The work is full of good alliterations, for e&ample weak and weary, nodded, nearly napping, entreating entrance, lost *eonore etc. Poe took great pride in his technical skills. -n his work mentioned in the introduction, Poe said that a perfect poem should be .// lines long, so that it could be readable at a single sitting. 0ot only talking about how a poem should look like and how long it should be, but Poe has reali%ed it in practice as The Raven has ./1 lines. #e can also find gothic story elements in the poem and detective story elements, as the poem builds suspense. The themes of the poem have been given deep thoughts and have carefully been chosen. 2ne of the constant themes, not 3ust in this particular poem but in general, is the death of a beautiful woman. "ccording to Philosophy of omposition!, a perfect poem should evoke a mood of melancholy, with the theme being beauty, therefore death of a beautiful woman is a perfect theme. (.". Poe was surrounded by deaths of several women, one of whom was his own mother, and later his own wife 4irginia. The women in his works are not real characters, they are blank slates for their male lovers to inscribe their stories and emotions in. *enore is the perfect e&ample of this woman. "nother theme, closely related to the first one and a very personal one, is the *onging for a lover and a surrogate mother. -n these beautiful women who died Poe and his narrator always seeks either for a lover or a mother he lost. The 5upernatural appears in this poem as one of the many themes. The Raven 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. 6sing the theme of life in death and death in life the narrator e&presses his obsessesion with death, and is desperately trying to bring his lost *enore to life, the other solution would be his own death and seeing his lost love in 7eaven. The state of the narrator is e&actly this8 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. 9uestioning of faith is a dualistic theme, as through the poem, the narrator :uestions his faith in +od and the afterlife, as well as his own faith in *enore and his love for her. -n the end he returns to the god he loves! and the thought of his darling. "t the very beginning, we are faced with the fact that the narrator is located in a distant and secluded place, far from civili%ation and far from those he loves. "lienation and loneliness is necessary for the overall feeling of melancholy in the poem. The (nd, the feeling of finality, undergoes through the whole song. #ith notions such as midnight and ;ecember, the end of a day and the end of a year, we see the glimpses of a nearing ending <death= for the narrator. Poe took this concept of unity of effect from ancient +reek philosophers and writers. "ncient +reeks thought that 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 omposition!. 7e said that a work must have a unity of time, sub3ect matter, action, tone. "ll of the previously mentioned things can be found in Poes poem. #e have death, loss, bleak atmosphere, gloom, closed but lu&orious place in which the man is he, outside is cold, it is ;ecember, there is a temper etc. <The location of the narrator is very lu&urious and secluded ) parallels with ancient +reek mythology= -n his work !The Philosophy of omposition Poe e&plained that an artists should start a poem by thinking of what effect he wants the poem to have on the rea er. -n his opinion a!! poems shou! be about beauty. 7e advocated that it is not truth that should be sought in art but beauty. 7e was against didactic poetry, Poe said that poetry having a didactic purpose is not poetry. 7e took the idea from the art pour art movement, according to which beauty is where poetry lays. #e should concentrate on the emotions, especially the sad ones because they affects us all. Poe said that a perfect poem should evoke sadness as an emotion the tone should be me!ancho!y, while the sub"ect matter an theme the eath of a beautifu! woman, as the perfect combination of beauty and melancholy. " perfect poem should be only .// lines long, so it can be read in a single sitting.