Edgar Allan Poe?s Poetry

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Once something is gone, it is extremely hard to recover. Poe proves this true in his poems, many of which are about the loss of ideal beauty. Poe often writes about this, even so much as defining poetry as “The rhythmical creation of beauty”, as stated in his writing, “The Poetic Principle”. Three poems that are specifically about the loss of ideal beauty are: “The Raven”, “Lenore” and “Annabel Lee”.

In “The Raven”, the speaker is trying to accept the death of his beloved, Lenore. He decides that he should move on, because it is only causing him great torment. He says this out loud, and the raven states “Nevermore”, meaning that he will never forget about her. He argues with the bird, but the bird keeps telling him, “Nevermore”. By the end of the poem, the speaker is still tormenting over Lenore, because the raven is still sitting on top of his chamber door, reminding him, not letting him move on. Lenore was an example of ideal beauty, and as shown in this poem, it was impossible to regain it after it’s death.

Lenore is the subject of another poem by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “Lenore”. In this case, the speaker is basically reprimanding “Guy De Vere” for killing his bride, leaving the speaker obsessing over what was, and what is now gone. In this poem, he is told to move on, because she is dead, and he cannot help that. The speaker wishes to mourn her death in silence, and imagine her as an ideal beauty, resting beside the King of Heaven.

The final poem I will analyze is “Annabel Lee”. This poem talks about an ideal beauty he knew as a child, and she was killed unexpectedly by the angels, according to the speaker, because he was too happy, and too much in love with her. In this poem, however, he accepts her death, but claims to have beat the angels, because: “neither the angels in heaven above, nor the demons down under the sea, can ever dissever my soul from the soul of the beautiful Annabel Lee.” This poem is different from the other two poems, because not only is it a different woman, but he psychologically accepts her death, in a way, rather then being forced to torment over it.

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