Thread: Edgar Allan Poe
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Old 06-11-2007, 07:21 PM   #32
deafasadoornail
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: So Cal
Posts: 124
I took a course on Gothic Literature in college and somehow we missed the symbolism of the raven. Honestly, I always thought of it as a literal representation -- here's this guy grieving for Lenore and he has this large bird that somehow becomes trapped in his room, always flitting about trying to find a way out. The narrator starts to personify the raven and becomes quite unhinged as a result (if you've ever had a scary bug or even a small bird trapped in a room with you, you'll understand the feeling).

I think my favorite Poe poem is "Annie" -- at least, I think that's the title -- because of the part that talks about "you shudder to behold me, thinking me dead. But my thoughts, they are brighter than all of the many Stars of the heavens, for they sparkle with Annie...." All the rhythm, the onomatopoeia, builds up to this conviction that this is a waking corpse talking. CREEPY.

And for sheer scary Poe, I will put the short story "Berenice" up against any others you care to name. The teeth....still makes me shudder just thinking about it.
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