The Raven

5.

I was very surprised that I didn't particularly care for The Raven. After reading The Black Cat, I thought that I had a solid feel for Poe and his writing, but his most famous work left me mostly flat.

It had a nice, mildly unconventional tempo which was well maintained throughout the writing. I found the language to be rather pleasant to read, such as "Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--
Perched, and sat, and nothing more."

But that's about where I stop liking it. I thought that the raven as a metaphor for death is a great idea, but I think it's overused in the story. It makes itself (to me at least) a part of the story seemingly removed from actual meaning. It seemed to go into trite flowery language about this bird instead of something really transcendent and/or beautiful.

6.

The raven in the poem is an obvious symbol of death. The raven is a creature that is very much a part of the imagination of essentially all people from the English speaking world and throughout Europe. The way in which Poe describes the raven is even kind of "deathly":

"Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore"