Diction The Raven

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Humans are incredibly complex creatures with a plethora of aspects and qualities. During the rise of Dark Romanticism, writers examined one such characteristic: a human’s capacity for evil. Edgar Allan Poe, a Dark Romanticist writer, attempted to explore the dark side of human nature in his literature. In his poem “The Raven,” a Raven flies into a man’s chamber as he is grieving for his dead lover, Lenore. The Raven refuses to leave and aggravates the man through its constant repetition of the word ‘nevermore’, triggering his spiral into madness. Poe’s excellent word choice, figurative language, and use of rhyme and diction in the second stanza contribute to the dark, melancholy tone of the poem and express the grief of the narrator. Poe’s …show more content…

“Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow/from my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore/For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore” (Poe 9-11). Poe’s strategic placement and repetition of ‘Lenore’ at the end of two lines give importance and priority to the name, expressing the narrator’s grief; the speaker’s thoughts of Lenore are the first priority in his mind and fill him with despair. In addition, Poe uses emphatic meter to emphasize certain words. By placing a pause after ‘morrow’ and ‘sorrow’, he creates internal rhyme and the weight of the words is on every other syllable. As a result, emphasis falls on important nouns and verbs, rather than articles and prepositions. This further serves to build the despondent tone of the essay by stressing the words with negative or dark connotations such as ‘vainly’ and ‘sorrow’. In addition, Poe adds the line “Nameless here for evermore” (12) at the end of the stanza. A variation of this seven syllable line is at the close of each stanza. This particular line in the second stanza is referring to Lenore in that she is no longer on earth, or ‘nameless,’ forever, or ‘for evermore.’ The last word, ‘evermore,’ creates a sense of finality that Lenore is gone for eternity. Therefore,

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