Allusions In The Raven

First published in 1845, The Raven remains to be the legendary Edgar Allan Poe’s most epochal work. Its first publication made Poe an overnight household name, soon reprinted, parodied, and illustrated. As Nathaniel Parker Willis, the editor of the New York Evening Mirror—a weekly newspaper of the time devoted to literature and fine arts-, praised it in his introduction; "Unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent, sustaining of imaginative lift ... It will stick to the memory of everybody who reads it" (Silverman 237). The Raven tells a story of an unnamed narrator whose reading of a “forgotten lore” by a dim fire in a dreary night in December disturbed by an impolite talking Raven,

Rich with allusions and cleverly put repetitious rhythmic diction that amplifies the atmosphere and relatability of a heartbreak, The Raven is the literary embodiment of angst from the nineteenth century. The plot follows a young scholar—not explicitly stated in the poem but instead mentioned in an essay by the author himself-, studying a book of lore by the bust of Pallas Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom (Poe par.29). Set at past midnight in the lifelessness of December, the author—as he is well known by- illustrates the dark and sacred atmosphere that he wants to portray. Poe made references to archaic literatures such as with Nepenthe, a drug—mentioned in the major Greek poem Odyssey attributed to Homer- that is capable of erasing memories; "Let me quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!" and Balm of Gilead from the Book of Jeremiah (8:22) in the Bible; "Is there no

The Raven’s iconic lines of rhymes would probably not make it well today compared to the deluge of poems of its time, if it’s not for its illustrations. Of course, the groundbreaking style of diction and the clearly set setting allow the readers to imagine the scene, it’s what makes The Raven a linguistic revolutionary, but then the illustration that depicts the imagery in the poem is what runs the engines. In 1858, “The Raven” appeared in a British Poe anthology with illustrations by John Tenniel, the Alice in Wonderland illustrator, and from then, many artists throughout decades had made their own versions of the fabled scene casting the narrator, the bird, and the window or the door. And just like children, everyone, adults with terrible imagination included, would easily be captivated into the curiosity upon glancing at the vivid form of illustration. The great French illustrator, sculptor, printmaker, and engraver Gustave Doré died shortly after completing his final work, a series of steel-plate engravings for a special edition of The Raven that’s published in 1884, the series of prints is distinguished for its very detailed and pristine depiction of a few selected stanzas. Perhaps what the Bulgarian writer Maria Popova said is true, that “Something uncommonly beautiful takes place when a great artist brings a great writer’s words to life, doubly so when those words transmit the inherent enchantment of poetry-”(Popova