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

Writing Techniques in Poes The pig it Edgar Allan Poe intents several writing proficiencys to create a single concentrated issue of unending despair in his classic poem, The Raven. The most noticeable technique is the character of repetition. Just as repeated exposure to unwarmed raindrops burn chill one to the bone, repeated exposure to words of hopelessness and sullenness creates a chilling opinion. Poe saturates the reader with desperate futility by repetitive use of the words nothing more and nevermore. These two phrases, used in refrain to end seventeen 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 ages in the first six stanzas. The unexplained repetitive sound helps the reader delineate with the search for answers that the verbaliser is experiencing. Poe makes use of repetition to emphasize feeling with the words, Surely, utter I, surely that is something at my window lattice (33). Repeating the word surely adds a sensory faculty of desperation concerning the search. Poe uses a gothic setting to create an atmosphere of gloom. The time is described as a midnight dreary (1) in the bleak declination (7). The supernatural is referred to through the words ghost (8), angels (11, 81, 95), Plutonian (47), soul (19, 56, 93, 99,107), alarming (70), unseen censer (79), prophet (85, 91), thing of evil (85, 91), devil (85, 91), and devil (105). The time of night and the inhospitable weather outside allow no escape from the speakers chamber which becomes a chamber of horror. Contrast intensifies the sense of gloom. The windy, bleak, celestial latitude night is contrasted to a room full of books, ric... ...anguage and a memorable suspicious effect. Poes use of the first person perspective combines with vivid details of kettle of fish and sound to form a powerful connection between the speaker and the reader. Poe shows ho w the sounds of words can be used to suggest more than their authentic meaning. The poem displays the impact 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 like an opiate elixir inducing a fascinating, hypnotic effect. kit and boodle Cited Poe, Edgar Allan. The Raven. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Eds. Nina Baym, et. al. 4th ed. New York, London W.W. Norton & Company, 1995 648-51.