Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven, Annabel Lee, And The Bells

Edgar Allan Poe was a famous American poet, and many of his works are still read in classrooms today. Some of his most famous works include “The Raven”, “Annabel Lee”, and “The Bells”. Across these three poems, there are multiple literary devices used. Poe’s use of literary devices adds depth and meaning to the poems. Without devices such as symbolism and imagery, the poems wouldn’t have any meaning that is directly connected to Poe’s life. Poe’s poems were often about a struggle he was having in his life, or about a woman dying. Poe wouldn’t have been able to write amazing poems without the use of literary devices such as symbolism, personification, and imagery. In Poe’s most famous poem, The Raven, the most obvious form of symbolism is the raven, symbolizing death. The raven is known as “The Devil’s Bird” because of it’s ugly and dark appearance, which helps it symbolize death. In the poem, the bird is often perched high and mocks the man in the poem by saying “nevermore” as if he were a broken record. The
The bronze set of bells is personified to be screaming. They are screaming because Poe personified them to be, and when the bronze is heard it means there is danger. In this case the danger is fire. The bronze set of bells are also “filled with fear” by shrieking. Poe personifies the iron bells when he says “To the throbbing of the bells” and “To the sobbing of the bells” and “To the moaning and the groaning of the bells”. Poe personified the bells to help describe the sound of them. The iron bells are the set of bells that sound the ugliest and most out of tune, and by using personification Poe gave a description as to what they sound like. If Poe hadn’t used personification, he wouldn’t have been able to easily describe what the bells sounded like. The easiest way to understand what an inanimate object sounds like is to give it human characteristics. Poe described the bells by using