Writing Techniques in Poes The Raven Essay -- Poe Raven Essays

Writing Techniques in Poes The Raven Edgar Allan Poe uses several musical composition techniques to create a single concentrated effect of unending hopelessness in his classic poem, The Raven. The most noticeable technique is the use of repeating. near as repeated exposure to cold raindrops locoweed chill nonpareil to the bone, repeated exposure to words of hopelessness and gloom creates a dismay effect. Poe saturates the reader with desperate futility by repetitive use of the words zilch more and nevermore. These two phrases, used in refrain to end xvii of the poems eighteen stanzas, drench the reader with melancholy. Poe also uses repetition to spark the readers curiosity. He refers to the sound of rapping or tapping eight times in the first off half dozen stanzas. The unexplained repetitive sound helps the reader identify with the search for answers that the utterer is experiencing. Poe makes use of repetition to emphasize feeling with the words, Surely, said I, surel y that is something at my window lattice (33). Repeating the word surely adds a sense of desperation concerning the search. Poe uses a gothic setting to create an atmosphere of gloom. The time is described as a mid shadow dreary (1) in the bleak December (7). The supernatural is referred to done the words ghost (8), angels (11, 81, 95), Plutonian (47), soul (19, 56, 93, 99,107), ominous (70), unseen censer (79), prophet (85, 91), thing of evil (85, 91), devil (85, 91), and demon (105). The time of night and the inhospitable weather outside allow no escape from the speakers domiciliate which becomes a chamber of horror. Contrast intensifies the sense of gloom. The windy, bleak, December night is contrasted to a room full of books, ric... ...anguage and a memorable singular effect. Poes use of the first person perspective combines with vivid details of sight and sound to degree a powerful connection between the speaker and the reader. Poe shows how the sounds of words can be u sed to suggest more than their actual meaning. The poem displays the repair of setting on a character and reveals the use of contrast as a tool to magnify descriptions. The Raven demonstrates how the effect of rhythm and repetition can be as hypnotic as the swinging of a pendulum and as chilling as a cold rain. The Raven is a poem better experienced than interpreted. Poes words go down kindred an opiate elixir inducing a fascinating, hypnotic effect. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eds. Nina Baym, et. al. fourth ed. New York, London W.W. Norton & Company, 1995 648-51.