The era of Romanticism spans from the late 1700's to the
mid 1800's following the French Revolution; therefore, "Romanticism"
encompasses characteristics of the human mind in addition to the particular time
in history when these qualities became dominant in culture. Romanticism depicts an artistic movement
which emerged from reaction against dominant attitudes and approaches of the
18th century. Romanticism established realism
in literature through creativity, innovation, exploration, and vivid imagery. By expanding beyond the definition of love,
Romanticism, accented by mystery, delves into the strange and fantastic aspects
of human experiences. "To escape
from society, the Romantics turned their interests to remote and faraway
places; the medieval past; folklore and legends, and nature and the common
man." Edgar Allen Poe is noted as
one of the few American "Romantic" poets. Poe's poem "The Raven" portrays
Romanticism as characterized by emotion, exotica, and imagination.
A friend of Edgar Allen Poe, R. H. Horne, wrote
of "The Raven", "the poet intends to represent a very painful
condition of the mind, as of an imagination that was liable to topple over into
some delirium or an abyss of melancholy, from the continuity of one unvaried
emotion." Edgar Allen Poe, author
of "The Raven," played on the reader's emotions. The man in "The Raven" was
attempting to find comfort from the remembrance of his lost love. By turning his mind to Lenore and recalling
how her frame will never again bless the chair in which he now reposes, he is
suddenly overcome with grief, whereby the reader immediately feels sorry for
the lonely man. The reader pities the
man's state of mind.
In addition to an emotional
characteristic, Poe also portrays the exotic.
Exotic means "unnatural".
Exotic means a raven that speaks only one word. Exotic means a bird that refuses to leave and
insists in staying in one place.
Finally, exotic means a life of torment of the speakers soul. The man is drawn to the bird to seek an
answer to the monotonous reply of "Nevermore".
Finally, "The Raven: is characterized
by imagination. The man imagines that a
raven is a godsend, intended to relieve him of his anguish. The man imagines that like all other
blessings of his life, the bird will leave.
The man's imagination rebukes the bird.
The man calls the bird a "thing of evil". The reader imagines a lonely, frightened, old
man who has suffered a great loss.
"The Raven is a poem written during
the Romantic Era. Romanticism doesn't
mean that a literary work has to be about love.
Ironically, "The Raven"
is both "romantic" and from the "Romantic" period. Poe's poem is about a man's "lost
love". The man's emotions causes
him to become exotic (shouting like a maniac for the bird to take its leave)
and finally to imagine all sorts of weird things (a raven that refuses to leave
and speaks only one word; "Nevermore").
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