Annabel Lee and The Raven discussion questions PDF

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Questions and answers about Edgar Allan Poe's Annabel Lee and The Raven...

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Israel Suarez 1-23-15 Annabel Lee 1. The narrator describes his love for Annabel as being a love that makes even the angels envious. So envious that the angels had Annabel killed. He also described as their love for one another as being greater and bigger than the concept of love. He had this strange belief that she was lived no other purpose than to love him. 2. Edgar Allen Poe was able to use sound to add to this poem. He uses literary elements such as repetition to capture the sound of the moving sea. Words such as “Lee”, “sea”, and “me” are used almost in a hypnotic way to distract the reader from this repetition. The repeating of such words is like the sounds of the waves in the story. 3. One word in particular that was repeated throughout the poem was sea. He uses the word sea as a recurring symbol. He uses the sea to represent the power of nature. Later in the poem, the narrator mentions that there are demons in the sea. This use of sea creates tension and adds a dark atmosphere. At the end of the poem, Poe uses the phrasing of “sounding sea”, to give the reader an echolike feeling. This feeling adds a sense of mystery. 4. 5. The narrator’s love for Annabel was depicted as an eternal love. The narrator’s love for Annabel brought him great joy. He felt their love stronger and greater than one experienced by any other. He felt his love for her was destined. He claims that “she lived with no other thought Than to love and be love by me”. This seems also seems like an obsessive kind of love. In the event of her death, he claims that no one “Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee”. He believes his love for her will last forever.

6. I believe this poem is meant to read aloud. Edgar Allen Poe’s use of sound and repetition seem like in provide even greater effect when read out loud. The use of rhyme, meter, and sound is greater emphasized in spoken reading. The poem has a musical rhythm when spoken. You get a better sense for Poe was trying to portray in Annabel Lee. The Raven 1. The word “Nevermore” is repeated throughout the poem to convey different effects. At the beginning of the poem it is used in a humorous, mocking sort of way towards the main character. The narrator begins to become agitated due to the word. He begins to about what it could mean. He realizes that the word is prophetic warning by the bird that he will never see his love again and he will never get rid of the bird. He then speaks he will be happy nevermore meaning he will never by happy again. 2. Edgar Allen Poe creates an atmosphere that can be described as uncanny. Uncanny means to be strange or mysterious in an unsettling way. Poe is able to do this by using the Raven. The Raven’s repeating of nevermore unnerves the narrator. The fact that it even talks at all makes the poem feel very strange. 3. For this poem, Edgar Allen Poe creates a hypnotic effect through the use of sound and rhythm. This particular poem sounds almost like an incantation or spell. As the tension of the story increases the words and the rhythm reflect that increased tension. Lines like this, "Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster/ Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore”, demonstrate the use of frantic sound in this poem. 4. When the narrator first walks into the lonely chamber, he isn’t sure what to make of the Raven who keeps on repeating “Nevermore”. The Raven gives the narrator an unsettling feeling. The Raven gives the narrator a feeling of fear and excitement. The reader may chose view the Raven

as prophetic supernatural entity. Perhaps the Raven was trying to let the narrator know something. At the end of the poem, the Raven is overshadowing the narrator, perhaps representing how his soul will see only darkness. The narrator will not find happiness again....