Features of The Raven

One of the most clever and intellectual literary writers in history was Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was a literate mastermind in creating complex and mysterious writings which can be seen in one of his most famous works called “The Raven.” In “The Raven,” various poetic and gothic elements are identified through the dramatic qualities presented throughout the poem. Through Poe’s imagination and creativity, the poetic and gothic elements in this poem challenges the reader to envision Poe’s mindset to better comprehend what he is trying to convey to the audience.

As one of the most famous poems in literature, “The Raven” is about a man seeking answers from a raven. To understand this piece, various poetic elements were used such as rhyme scheme and repetition to depict what is happening in the poem. Poe’s use of both internal and external rhyme schemes adds a smooth flow throughout the poem. On the other hand, his use of repetition adds a frightful sense of fear to the reader by repeating such daunting words and phrases over and over again.

As poetic elements were used, “The Raven” also presents several gothic elements as well. Some of the gothic elements that were incorporated into Poe’s work were mystery and death. The raven signifies both gothic elements pertaining to mystery and death. It is an unknown mystery to how the raven arrives next to the man. Thus, the raven also signifies death by how the raven represents the man’s soul being held down by the grief of  Lenore’s death.
As a contemporary of Poe, a transcendentalist author by the name of Ralph Waldo Emerson viewed the poem as unheard of stating that he saw “nothing in it.” As one of the finest examples of gothic literature, “The Raven” was written as an anti-transcendental work by Poe. Poe did not believe the ideas of transcendentalists such as Emerson, who believed that people and nature are as inherently good.