Creating the Melancholic Tone in The Raven Edgar Allan Poes "The Raven," representing Poes own introverted crisis of hell, is unusually moving and attractive to the reader. In his essay entitled "The Philosophy ofComposition," Poe reveals his purpose in writing The Raven and also describes thework of composing the poem as being carefully calculated in all aspects. Of allmelancholy topics, Poe wished to use the one that was universally understood, death;specifically death involving a beautiful woman. The apparent tone in Edgar Allan PoesThe Raven seemingly represents a very painful condition of mind, an intellect sensitiveto madness and the abyss of melancholy brought upon by the death of a beloved lady. Theparallelism of Poes own personal problems, with those of the narrator in The Raven, hiscalculated use of symbolism, and the articulation of language through the use of theravens refrain, the reader becomes aware of Poes prominent tone of melancholy.A strong device for the melancholic tone in "The Raven" is Poes use of the firstperson. Poe used the first person by virtue of the situations in "The Raven" taking directinfluence from Poe's life experiences. Among many other misfortunes, including living alife of poverty and being orphaned at a young age, Poes beloved wife Virginnia, died aftera long illness. The narrators sorrow for the lost Lenore is paralleled with Poes own griefregarding the death of his wife. Confined in the chamber are memories of her who hadfrequented it. These ghostly recollections cultivate an enormous motive in the reader toknow and be relieved of the bewilderment that plagues the narrator and consequently Poehimself; the narrator ponders whether he will see his wife in the afterlife. After Virginniaslingering death, Poe tried to relieve his grief by drinking. A parallelism is formed in TheRaven between the condescending actions of the raven towards the narrator and thetaunting of alcohol towards P...
