Romanticism
The Romantic Period was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate period from 1800 to 1850. As a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political patterns of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature. It was comprised mostly in the visual arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education, and the natural sciences. Its effect on politics was considerable although most of the Romantic period was associated with liberalism and radicalism, in the long term its effect on the growth of nationalism was probably more significant.
Edgar Allan Poe was born January 19, 1809 and died October 7, 1849. He was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic, and considered part of the American Romantic Movement. He was born as Edgar Poe in Boston, Massachusetts and was orphaned young when his mother died shortly after his father abandoned the family. He went to live with the Allens which is where his name became Edgar Allen Poe. His career began with a collection of poems after attending only one semester of University of Virginia because of lack of money.
Poem: The Raven
By: Edgar Allen Poe
http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
Poem Summary:
The poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe is about the narrator dozing off reading a scary or sad book. He is having troubling memories of is lost love Lenore. He is suffering inside and a bit depressed because of this when he gets disturbed by a tapping at his door. Once he discovers there is no human making the noises he begins to be fearful of the creature outside. He reassures himself that it is nothing more than the wind at his window. He soon opens his window to see nothing but a raven fly into his home. He gets amused by it and asks it its name but it respond back nevermore. He the is terrified yet still amused and asks the bird more and more questions. Soon the more and more he asks the raven he begins to believe thew raven is an evil devil that was sent for him. In the end, the narrator steadily begins to lose his sanity.
Poem: The Raven
By: Edgar Allen Poe
http://www.heise.de/ix/raven/Literature/Lore/TheRaven.html
Poem Summary:
The poem The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe is about the narrator dozing off reading a scary or sad book. He is having troubling memories of is lost love Lenore. He is suffering inside and a bit depressed because of this when he gets disturbed by a tapping at his door. Once he discovers there is no human making the noises he begins to be fearful of the creature outside. He reassures himself that it is nothing more than the wind at his window. He soon opens his window to see nothing but a raven fly into his home. He gets amused by it and asks it its name but it respond back nevermore. He the is terrified yet still amused and asks the bird more and more questions. Soon the more and more he asks the raven he begins to believe thew raven is an evil devil that was sent for him. In the end, the narrator steadily begins to lose his sanity.
Literary Elements
Edgar Allen Poe uses tons of literary language in this poem. This is a list of the alliteration because of repeated beginning consonants being used: "a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary", "I nodded, nearly napping", surcease of sorrow- sorrow", silken sad uncertain", "doubting, dreaming dreams", "I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter", "stepped a stately raven, of the saintly", "bird or beast above the sculptured bust", " friends have flown before", and "grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt". There is also a lot of assonance in this piece because of the use of repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds. Here is a list of quotes from the poem of assonance: "purple curtain", "thrilled me- filled me", "hopes have flown". There is consonance in the poem when it says, " rapping, rapping.....tapping". There are a few signs of imagery in the poem when the narrator describes reading in his room about to fall asleep, when the bird flies through the window, and when he wheels the chair up to it to talk to it. There is also an allusion in the poem when it says, "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven".