Week Two - The Raven, The Philosophy of Composition, and The Sleeper

The Raven

"The Raven" is one of my all time favorite poems. In high school (and in a Christian school, no less) I earned the nickname Raven because of my love for the poem. I love the imagery, the flow, and internal rhyming and the fact that this raven repeating one word over and over could drive a man even more mad than he was.
This poem touches me emotionally, as well. I lost my someone I loved very much at a young age. I was a mere 21 when the love of my life died. I myself have thrown myself into reading much like the narrator did to try to ignore this pain and loss. I find it a little scary that I relate so much to so many of Poe's poems. The fact of the matter is - I lost someone too and I know what Poe is trying to convey in some of his poems. I know that he was trying to work through the loss, and possibly understand it. Poe took a more melancholy and dark approach, but if that's what worked for him... more power to it!

The Philosophy of Composition

Ah, Poe seems to enjoy taking the piss with his essays. Poe seems to me to be one sarcastic little man that likes to antagonize people. He reminds me of my best friends in that respect.
In this particular essay Poe claims that he wrote "The Raven" in a certain way as to make it a perfect poem. Everything about the poem is deliberate and there for a reason. He also said that a poem should be written in one sitting, but as a poet myself I don't see how he wrote and revised and did all that work on "The Raven" in one sitting. It took me a few sittings to get one of my poems the way I wanted. But then again, all poets are different so perhaps he did manage to write "The Raven" in one sitting. It must have been one long sitting, though, as that is one long poem.

The Sleeper

Oh look, another poem about another dead beautiful woman! I love the first stanza and how it feels like the narrator is seemingly high. He sees the fog behind the moon and covering the land as opiate vapor; like the moon has just smoked and is letting her smoke just flow freely through out the valley. It's very beautiful.
The narrator of this poem is in denial at first that his beloved is dead. He notices things about her that he hasn't before (like how long her hair is, and that she is dressed differently) and by the last stanza he admits that she is dead and seems to accept it.