Poe: Criticism of a Weay Life (Focusing on the Raven)
Roger Campbell
Oct. 19, 2009
Poe and the criticism of a weary life
While reading the dark, mysterious, and exceptional poem entitled, The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, there are many layers of interest throughout this well known poem. On the outside, after skimming the mere edges of this literary piece, the poem begins with a man at sitting in a chair at home, speaking with an odd placed raven that has come into his residence. The speaker brings to attention the name of Lenore, and this name is repeated over and over again. The poem explains that the raven answering all of the man’s questions with the answer “nevermore.” While many students throughout their years in school, well before college, read this poem, few ever seem to understand the material that it actually consists of, and may even find the poem to be too simple and lacking in sophisticated lyrical ballads, as well as dramatic events, and excitement. This can be a mistake, for as I had delved into the background of Poe, I found that even I was a victim of poor judgment of what I had considered to be one of my favorite poems of all time. This poem is a perfect example of Poe’s pain he had suffered throughout his life, and even gives the first time reader a basis into some of his other famous works. By analyzing the information I was able to draw from Poe and his life, as well as this poem, I found biographical criticism to be my favorite method over new criticism, and to be very useful in analyzing a literary text. The two methods that I have used thus far, can both be extremely useful, because as I had explained in my opening paragraph, these types of criticism allows the viewer to take their own ideas into consideration in future viewing of the literature at hand. Both methods allow the reader to gain a whole new perspective and possibly even more enjoyment in the author’s works, instead of looking at them as if they were simply a reading assignment for school, or a plain poem about
Oct. 19, 2009
Poe and the criticism of a weary life
While reading the dark, mysterious, and exceptional poem entitled, The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, there are many layers of interest throughout this well known poem. On the outside, after skimming the mere edges of this literary piece, the poem begins with a man at sitting in a chair at home, speaking with an odd placed raven that has come into his residence. The speaker brings to attention the name of Lenore, and this name is repeated over and over again. The poem explains that the raven answering all of the man’s questions with the answer “nevermore.” While many students throughout their years in school, well before college, read this poem, few ever seem to understand the material that it actually consists of, and may even find the poem to be too simple and lacking in sophisticated lyrical ballads, as well as dramatic events, and excitement. This can be a mistake, for as I had delved into the background of Poe, I found that even I was a victim of poor judgment of what I had considered to be one of my favorite poems of all time. This poem is a perfect example of Poe’s pain he had suffered throughout his life, and even gives the first time reader a basis into some of his other famous works. By analyzing the information I was able to draw from Poe and his life, as well as this poem, I found biographical criticism to be my favorite method over new criticism, and to be very useful in analyzing a literary text. The two methods that I have used thus far, can both be extremely useful, because as I had explained in my opening paragraph, these types of criticism allows the viewer to take their own ideas into consideration in future viewing of the literature at hand. Both methods allow the reader to gain a whole new perspective and possibly even more enjoyment in the author’s works, instead of looking at them as if they were simply a reading assignment for school, or a plain poem about
Cited: Liukkonen, Petri. "Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)". Pegasos. October 11th, 2009. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/eapoe.htm C.D., Merriman. "Edgar Allan Poe - Biography and Works". Jalic. October 11th, 2009. http://www.online-literature.com/poe Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Philosophy of Composition". http://www.poedecoder.com/Qrisse/works/philosophy.php, 1850.