The Raven and Other Things

This is probably one of the busiest times in our high school academic careers right now, but I thought it'd be prudent to resuscitate the blog for the time being. We've been going over the Poe packet in class the past week or so, and so far we've read the Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, the Fall of the House of Usher, and the Raven. We have discussed that the first three short stories rely heavily on Gothic themes and the human psychological condition. The Raven continues these themes, in a narrative poem format.

In class today, we discussed several aspects of the poem. One, it explores the effect of grief and how people may try to relieve themselves of this. The narrator of the poem finds solace in books of forgotten lore, trying to use rationality and logic to fix an emotional problem. Two, there are two prominent symbols in the poem - the Raven, and the bust of Athena. The Raven sits atop the bust at one point in the poem, showing its dominance over wisdom. Three, we explored the repeating "Nevermore." This one word, quothed by the Raven throughout the poem, is the only thing it can say. The author is aware of this, but nonetheless he continues to ask it questions that can only be answered with "Nevermore." We came to the conclusion that the narrator did this to convince himself of Lenore's fate, since he was in a state of denial.

We will continue to discuss this poem tomorrow. Feel free to discuss anything Raven related here as well.

-Colin