Poe's Poetry

With fascinating rhyme scheme and an enthralling setting, Edgar Allen Poe draws readers into his dreadfully frightening poems. His poems are best known for being extremely grim and macabre, but with a hint of Romanticism in them. “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” depict Romanticism being described by feelings and imagination. These poems reflect the reality that the author is dealing with different views in the way lovers grieving and the way of dealing with death. He is also able to make two poems that seem very similar completely different. These are all factors in both poems that make these two poems with a similar theme accomplish parallel purposes in emphasizing the theme of the unreliable narrator in Poe’s works.

The unnamed narrators in both Annabel Lee and The Raven, though remarkably similar, have very subtle differences in several ways. There seems to be a sense of sadness and suspense that haunts the narrator in The Raven. The sense of melancholy and apprehension permeates the poem several times. “Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore”; these are only the second lines of “The Raven, yet the reader gets the feeling that the narrator is retelling a story of his past, the “curious volume of forgotten lore”. The anxiety begins to build early in the poem, starting in line four. While the narrator is at home alone, he hears “someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door”. He assumes it is a visitor, and is surprised to see “Darkness there and nothing more” (Line 24). This is the way he builds anticipation gradually and sets the mood. There seems to be a sense of brooding from the narrator and use of the words “Terrors, Darkness, Dirges, and Grave” give a feeling of bleakness and hopelessness. The atmosph...

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Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Annabel Lee.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2011. Columbia University Press. 25 Mar. 2011..

Poe, Edgar Allan. “Raven, The.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2011. Columbia University Press. 25 Mar. 2011..

“Commentary on‘Raven, The’.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2011. Columbia University Press. 25 Mar. 2011.

“Commentary on‘Annabel Lee’.” Columbia Granger's World of Poetry Online. 2011. Columbia University Press. 25 Mar. 2011.

"Poetry Analysis: Comparing The Raven and Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allan Poe - by Arden Davidson - Helium." Helium - Where Knowledge Rules. Web. 25 Mar. 2011. .