Ligeia

On Wednesday of this week, we had a lot of focus on Poe's Ligeia. It is told through the words of the narrator who seems to be an insane opium addict, making the story hard to believe. Throughout the entire passage, you are wondering how much of it is actually true and how much is him hallucinating. He is fixated on his late wife, Ligeia and constantly sees her ghost as well as in Rowena.
To the narrator, Ligeia was perfect. She was physically gorgeous, knowledgeable of everything, and she worshiped him. He was very superficial and wanted a subservient. Another question I had in the reading was that i wondered if he ever really saw Rowena, because he was so fixated on Ligeia. "That Ligeia loved me, I should not have doubted; and I might have been easily aware that, in a bosom such as hers, love would have reigned no ordinary passion. But in death only, was I fully impressed with the intensity of her affection. For long hours, detaining my hand, would she pour out before me the overflowings of a heart whose more than passionate devotion amounted to idolatry." Also, his constant reference to opium makes you constantly question his sanity.
There were quite a few quotes from the story that symbolized his dark point of view. The following was what i found to be very important: "It might have been midnight, or perhaps earlier, or later, for I had taken no note of time, when a sob, low, gentle, but very distinct, startled me from my revery. I felt that it came from the bed of ebony-the bed of death. I listened in an agony of superstitious terror-but there was no repetition of the sound; I strained my vision to detect any motion in the corpse, but there was not the slightest perceptible."

Poe and The Raven

It is no secret that Edgar Allen Poe was a very complex and interesting man. His life story and sanity are definitely questionable but nothing can be proven because he did not write his own biography. The first one done was by his competition who hated him. Even if Poe had written an autobiography, he was a "showman" who wanted to be looked at as crazy. But, no matter what is said of Poe, he is a well-respected writer, and for good reason. His use of symbolism and imagery, descriptive settings, and his intense moods and tones of his poems and short stories make them a great and interesting read, no matter how dark.
One of Poe's most famous works is The Raven. He makes great use of all of his literary devices and creativity in this poem. It had a gothic and dark setting. The passage that I believe shows the mood the best is lines 7-12 which state:
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each seperate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;-vainly I had tried to borrow
From my books sucrease of sorrow-Sorrow for the lost of Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.
This passage really sets the dark scene as well as shows us the theme of paranoia, sorrow, and mourning. There is also fear of the afterlife and the reuniting with his late Lenore.
Another one of Poe's extreme strengths was his symbolism. In The Raven he uses many symbols which infer darkness but the most representative symbol is the raven, itself. A raven eats corpses, it is a dark black bird, and can be trained to say words. There are also myths about ravens that they are signs that warn of evil. All of these could contribute to why Poe used the raven. It turns from a comforting presence, to a sign, to complete evil throughout the poem. It ends with:
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming.
And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted-nevermore!