Download Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven - An Analysis, American Studies

English
Christian Schlegel
Edgar Allan Poe:The Raven - An Analysis
Seminar paper
Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven“
An Analysis
American Poetry of the 19th Century
SS 2000
August 27th 2000
Christian Schlegel
Englisch (LG) 2. Sem.
kath. Theologie (LG) 2. Sem.
Geschichte (LG) 1. Sem.
1
Table of Contents
1. Introduction ………………………………………………….. p. 2
1.1. What is this Paper about?……………………………………. p. 2
1.2. About the Author…………………………………………….. p. 2
1.2.1. Early Life and Work……………………………….. p. 2
1.2.2. Editorial Career…………………………………….. p. 3
2. Analysis…...…………………………………………………… p. 4
2.1. About the Text……………………………………………….. p. 4
2.1.1. Summary……………………………………………. p. 4
2.1.2. Origin……………………………………………….. p. 4
2.2. Structure……………………………………………………… p. 5
2.2.1. Subdivisions of the Poem……………………………p. 5
2.2.2. Development in the Text…………………………… p. 5
2.3. Meaning………………………………………………………. p. 6
2.3.1. What is the Poem about?…………………………… p. 6
2.3.2. What does the Raven stand for?……………………. p. 7
2.4. Metrical and Acoustic Aspects……………………………….. p. 8
2.5. Style…………………………………………………………... p. 8
2.5.1. Symbols………...…………………………………... p. 8
2.5.2. Stylistic Devices…………………………………….. p. 10
3. Summary………………………………………………………. p. 11
4. List of Works Cited…………………………………………… p. 13
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1. Introduction
1.1. What is this Paper about?
The course during the semester was about American poetry of the nineteenth
century but it was also concerned with the discussion of poetry in general.
At first I will give some information about the life and work of the
author Edgar Allan Poe and the plot of “The Raven“ which is said to be his best
known piece of work. Then under the headline “Analyzation“ I will analyze the
poem by considering intrinsic points of view in order to take a close look at it
and how it is arranged, as well as extrinsic points of view, in order to give some
background information about the history of the text.
Finally I will summarize my results by answering several questions:
1. Did Poe’s life influence the story that is told in The Raven?
2. Why is this poem so famous?
3. Is The Raven a ‘good’ poem?
I will try to find the answers to these questions in agreement with authors and
critics who wrote about this poem.
1.2. About the Author
1.2.1. Early Life and Work
Edgar Poe was born on January the nineteenth 1809 in
Boston. His parents, David Poe Jr. and Elizabeth Arnold
Hopkins, were touring actors; both died before he was 3
years old, and he was taken into the home of John Allan, a
prosperous merchant in Richmond, Virginia, where he was
baptized Edgar Allan Poe. His childhood was uneventful,
although he studied for 5 years (1815-20) in England. In 1826 he entered the
University of Virginia but stayed for only a year. He ran up large gambling
debts that his stepfather refused to pay. Therefore he had to leave the college.
He broke with Allan and went to Boston, where he published his first book of
poems, Tamerlane and other Poems (1827). Because of not having any
financial support and the book being unsuccessful, Poe enlisted in the army.