During this trying time, Poe lived with his Aunt, and eventually fell in love with his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. ... The narrator is a man home alone at night mourning the loss of his love Lenore. ... It is most obvious that Poe's rhyme scheme in this poem reinforces the theme of inconsolable loss through the emphatic repetition of "Nevermore." ... This very intense use of repetition suggests that the theme of "The Raven" may not be so much about "inconsolable sorrow," as so many critics have deemed, but more about a kind of obsessive grief that one feels when a loved o...

• Word Count: 2529
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The juxtaposition of Poe's life and work is most evident in the morbid personalities and melancholy themes of his literary compositions, similar to those of his life. ... Poe's paternal grandfather had been a wealthy man, but his father, David Poe, had left the family to become an actor, and Edgar was left with nothing. ... During the fall of 1823, when Edgar was fourteen years old, his classmate Robert Stanard introduced Poe to his mother, Jane Stanard, who was a beautiful and compassionate young woman. ... In the first of the poem's three stanzas, Poe compares Helen's b...

• Word Count: 3026
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

The distinction between right and wrong in Poe's stories is a very powerful theme, ever present in his horrific accounts. ... The reader is told that the narrator appears to be a happily married man, who has always been exceedingly kind and gentle. ... As the narrator begins to depict his story in the form of a rather subtle flashback, the reader discovers that the man's personality has undergone a drastic transformation, which he attributes to his abuse of alcohol and the perverse side of his nature, which the alcohol apparently evoked, as it serves as a catalyst. ...

• Word Count: 4324
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School