Our primary obsessions in life are death and love. A feeling of intense affection and love is the result of a deep, intimate connection. Death is the permanent cessation or loss of all biological functions that support a living, functioning organism. Love and Death are the principal fixations in Edgar Allan Poe’s poems, “To Helen”, and “Lenore” (Edgar Allan Poe). Poe explores the loss and difficulty of ideal beauty in the poems “To Helen”, Lenore, and “The Raven”, but they don’t reach the same conclusion. “To Helen” consists of three lines. The beloved is the personification of Helen of Troy. Poe shows us that true love can transcend death in “Lenore”. The speaker continues his torture by repeatedly asking an ominous raven whether he will ever see his beloved again. This essay will examine how Poe’s poems “To Helen”, Lenore, and “The Raven” explore the loss of ideal beauty as well as the difficulties of regaining that beauty. Each of the three poems takes a different approach when it comes to depicting the themes of love or death. Poe manages to communicate a cohesive concept in all three poems by using literary devices.
A crucial characteristic in “To Helen”‘s theme of love is the use in allusions of language. The speaker uses allusions to show his love for Helen. The speaker begins the poem by referring to Helen, his beloved. The speaker refers his inamorata to Helen in the poem. Helen of Troy is the most beautiful person to ever live according to Venus in The Judgement of Paris. Helen of Troy is referred to as “the face which launched a thousand ship” in the poem. Helen, the speaker refers to his beloved, reinforces her beauty and emphasizes that she is the perfect woman. Line 17 is another way the speaker expresses his love. “The agate candle within thy heart, Ah!” Psyche the peoples of the region which. Another allusion to the classic is the agate lightbulb. Metamorphoses reveals that the lamp was carried by Psyche, the embodiment or spirit. The oil she poured on the Eros caused him to awaken from his sleep, and she stirred him. According to the speaker, Helen helped him see beauty and awaken his desire for affection. Alliteration and metaphorical languages are used in the allusions. They also highlight Helen’s enormous love. Line five contains an alliteration that describes Helen’s love. “The weary wanderer, who had travelled far to reach his homeland,” the speaker declares.
The alliteration “weary-way-worn wanderer” could be used to refer to Odysseus. Odysseus made the long, difficult journey home to Penelope after the Trojan War was over. A speaker might also use the phrase “weary, way-worn traveler” to refer to himself. This could be because he loves Helen and/or because he is attracted her extraordinary beauty. There are many metaphors used to describe the speaker’s affection for him. The speaker says, in lines 7 and 8, “Thy hyacinth, thy classical face, Thy Naiad has brought me home/To Greece’s glory and Rome’s grandeur.” Helen’s hyacinth hair and classic face give off a feeling of Hellenic beauty. The Naiads, a type female spirit, were based on Greek mythology. They lived in the water and were known for their beautiful faces. Helen’s beauty brought the speaker home from Rome and Greece. This suggests that he is able to recall the splendor and beauty of Western civilization and that he sees Helen as his support. Like Poe’s poem To Helen, his poem “Lenore” uses literary tools to emphasize the theme.
The speaker uses repetitions and hyperboles in his language to highlight the love he has for his deceased inamorata. The speaker ends the first stanza by stating that his beloved died young. The speaker said, “An Anthem for the Queenliest Dead That Ever Died So Young — A dirge for Her the Doubly Dead in the fact that She died so young.” Lenore was so young that it’s obvious that the speaker is sad. This repetition highlights the love that Lenore has for the narrator’s youthfulness. Hyperboles can also be used to emphasize the speaker’s love of Lenore. Stanza four is a hyperbole. In it, the speaker declares, “From sorrow and groaning to a heavenly throne. Lenore was a tragically young, beautiful woman. Guy de Vere describes Lenore’s beauty and her ascend to heaven in hyperbolic terms. De Vere is a true lover of Lenore, as he continues to defend her name despite her passing. To emphasize the theme of Death, De Vere also uses allusions and structure in his poems.
To bring out the theme, the poem’s structure and allusions are used. Edgar Allan Poe makes use of internal rhymes to emphasize the theme death. According to the speaker, “For him, the fair, debonair, which now so lowly lies. She lives upon her yellow hair but her eyes are not — The life that is still there, upon his hair-the death that is upon her eyes.” The poem’s last three lines form a triolet, which highlights the words “young,” “eyes”, or “Heaven” in each stanza. Guy De Vere’s melancholy, sorrow is highlighted by the emphasis placed on those words. The theme of Death is also highlighted in allusions by the speaker. The speaker says, in line 2, “a saintly spirit floats on Stygian rivers”. This refers to the River Styx which flows through the underworld in Greek mythology. Only pure (saintly), souls could cross Elysium to reach heaven once they’d died. The speakers of the poems “To Helene” and “Lenore,” use many literary devices to express their love for their inamoratas. Like “To Helen”, the poem “Lenore” also highlights the theme death. The dead love of her life is seen through the eyes and perfection of her man-loving lover. In “Lenore”, however, Helen is alive and the epitome for beauty through their eyes. The Raven uses literary devices, just like Poe’s “To Helen” or “Lenore” poems to highlight central themes of love/death.
Like many Poe works, “The Raven” explores the theme death through repetition. The speaker’s sorrow at losing Lenore is highlighted by repetition in the poem. The speaker repeats Lenore’s name throughout the poem.
I stared deep into the darkness, longing to know, and fear.
Doubting, dreams no mortals have ever dreamed of before.
But silence remained unbroken, and stillness didn’t give any indication.
The only thing that was said was “Lenore”, a whispered word.
This I whispered, an echo murmured back, “Lenore!”
This is all you need.
The speaker understands that Lenore was the only center of his enduring and that he had to confront his self-uncertainty to find meaning. He also speaks out about his depression, whispering Lenore’s name and how it affected him. The speaker also repeats the word “nevermore” at the end of each stanza in lines thirty to three-six to indicate how Lenore’s tragic death affected him. The speaker says, “It will clasp a sainted Maiden whom the Angel’s Name Lenore — Clasp the rare and radiant Maiden whom Quoth the Raven Nevermore/Quoth the Lenore/Quoth” As he realizes that he is trapped in this agony, the speaker spirals into confusion. In panic, he asks if he will ever grasp and hold his Lenore until eternity. The raven slammed him and replied no. After confronting his emotions, the speaker is crushed and grieves for Lenore. Repetition is not the only way to express the grief he feels now that Lenore has passed away.
The poem uses poetry and symbolism as a way to convey the pain that Lenore, his beloved, feels. Poe emphasizes particular sounds and uses a specific rhyme pattern to bring out the theme. The speaker said, “On Horror haunted’s home, tell me truthfully, I implore — Is Gilead a balm?” Poe emphasizes ‘O’ sounds in words. For example, he uses ‘Lenore,’ and a ‘nevermore’ to express the sadness and melancholy he feels. Poe employs words that rhyme all the way through a stanza, using’more’ to emphasize the central theme (death) and unify the poem. Lenore’s death was not only a poetic structure. The raven symbolises the severity of his loss. The speaker says, “Is there –is Gilead balm?” Tell me, Quoth, the Raven Nevermore.
The Raven symbolizes death’s personification and is used to remind us of our upcoming destiny. The entire text discusses Lenore’s death and the metaphorical death that follows. The Raven symbolizes human self-torture. The Raven is a symbol of the human tendency to self-torture. The poem Lenore and The Raven both refer to a deceased woman called Lenore. The narrator reveals that Lenore is a fictionalized version of Lenore. He can reassure himself by imagining seeing her again at heaven, even though both poems are about Lenore. The narrator in “The Raven” believes that he will never again meet Lenore.
Edgar Allan Poe’s poems “To Helen”, Lenore, and “The Raven” explore the loss and difficulty of ideal beauty. But each poem takes a different approach when it comes to depicting the themes of love or death. Poe can still convey a common conception through the use literary devices in his three poems. “To Helen”, a poem of three lines, in which the beloved acts as a personification Helene of Troy is the epitome for beauty and elegance. Poe shows us that true love can transcend death in “Lenore.” The speaker continues his torture by repeatedly asking an evil raven whether he will ever see his beloved dead again. Society’s primary fixation will always be love and death.
