ENGL 1102 – “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe Assignment

Read the poem “The Raven”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48860/the-raven

Write a 200 word analysis that answers one of the following sets of questions:

1. How do the formal properties of Poes poem (rhythm, meter, rhyme, alliteration, assonance, repetition) relate to the poems meaning? How did readers in his time understand this poem?

2. How does The Raven participate in 19th-century cultures of mourning?

3. What exactly happens in The Raven, and how does the plot unfold? How do we chart the speakers transformation over the course of the poem?

4. What are Poes own ideas about poetry, and how did he explain the workings of The Raven?