Borges considera que no es un buen poema de Poe y no seré yo quien diga lo contrario. Cada uno tiene sus gustos.
Este poema me ha evocado miedo, pérdida, nostalgia de amor. No es una maravilla por como está escrito, sino por todo lo que transmite y por su originalidad.
Así lo he vivido yo.

Borges considers it's not a good poem by Poe and I will not say otherwise. Everyone has his own ideas.
This poem has evoked fear, loss, longing for love. It is not a marvel for how it is written, but for all that it conveys and for its originality.
This is how I have experienced it.

n  n

¡Y pensar que Edgar Allan Poe recibió tan sólo 10 dólares por su poema más famoso y uno de los más memorables en la historia de la literatura!
Originalmente había pensado en llamarlo "The Parrot", pero la elección del cuervo le dio un lustre más oscuro de lúgubre desasosiego del yo lírico que declama la pérdida de su querida Lenore.
La aliteración utilizada en el poema es única (como en el caso de su otro poema "The Bells"), y será eterno.
Forevermore!

Can't count how many times I've read this. It's brilliant. No, that doesn't do it justice. It's...
And The Simpsons very first Halloween episode did a good job with it too.

I read this yesterday for probably the 150th time and want to say thanks to dear old Edgar.
I teach therapeutic writing to some quite reluctant students. They literally groan when they see me coming. Each class I struggle to find material that they will relate to in some small way. I chose this standard out of equal parts desperation and resignation... and it worked. Eyes lit up! Comments were made! Unity of effect in good poetry was discussed! Thank you, Edgar Allan Poe, you saved my butt.

As to the poem itself, I don't know that it's particularly great, but it is perfect. Can a thing be not-great and perfect at the same time? Yes. Because I say so.

n  Nevermore!n


n  RAISE RAVENS...n

First of all, two things...

...one, I classified this poem as a "short story" since I haven't read so much poetry as to justify a tag for that in my personal list to describe books...

...two, I rated 4 stars, since kinda the same reason, due I haven't developed a knack for poetry, but since I was curious about this poem by Edgar Allan Poe, still I read it, and certainly I liked it quite a bit, but it's some hard to enjoy for me poetry. Nobody's fault.

This is easily one of the most famous poems of all time and one of the masterpieces in the middle of Poe's works.

And this edition has the plus of having the gorgeous illustrations by Gustave Doré (that I already knew about him thanks to "Pawn Stars" where another book illustrated by him was taken there).

Funny thing is that most people think that a talking raven is a paranormal element, in an episode of "Doctor Who" (Capaldi's era) was shown ravens talking too as something unusual, but I watched a TV show in "Nat Geo Wild" where they informed that ravens indeed learn to "talk", much like parrots, repeating words that they heard. Ravens even do a "funeral" ceremony for those dead ravens that they find, reuniting for a moment around the fallen comrade. Amazing animals, the ravens are.

In this captivating poem, a male character is mourning the loss of his lover, Lenore, and in the middle of his sorrow, a raven gets into the room, and while the bird only says "Nevermore", the male character manages to think that this raven is answering all his questions, not matter how diverse are.

When you are in deep pain...

...you only hear what you want to hear...

...even if it makes you angry.

A comprehensive and exhaustive work of Poe, on a lover’s grief and affliction, lamenting over his tragic lost love. With the focus on death, the supernatural, battle between emotions vs cogency, the poem circles around “Dark Romanticism”

The poem’s opening line, sets the perfect meter for grief and distress-
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary
The narrator is wearied out, and finds the night to be totally depressing and drab!

The 3 main characters of the poem are-
1.tThe Narrator, who supposedly reads books on “lore”/ legends, and is a scholar, lost in the world of books.
2.tThe Raven, the speaking bird, who won’t leave the narrator alone, and is a perfect symbol of depression and death.
3.tLenore, the dead wife/lover, symbolizing the tragic lost love.

Poem's Plot-
The unnamed lonely narrator, finds solace post losing his love/wife, in books. He distracts himself by reading, when he hears a tap at his door-

“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping”
Desperately wishing, that his dead wife has returned back, all he hears is just an echo back of his spoken word!
“And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, "Lenore?"
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, "Lenore!"
Merely this, and nothing more.”

Retreating back to his chamber, he hears a tapping on his window, and sees a stately Raven, landing on the bust of Pallas above his chamber door!

“In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;”

The Raven can speak, and answers to all the narrator’s questions with the repeated word- “Nevermore”
The word, “Nevermore” holds the highest significance in the poem, as it assures the narrator that he can find Lenore never again, and his affliction is permanent!

The poem leaves us pondering, if the Raven is actually replying to all his questions with the word “Nevermore” or is the narrator hallucinating and fantasizing in melancholy, and crashing into a deep abyss of madness and perpetual and incessant grief!
The recitation, is full of mesmer and music!
n  
Few of the notable points-n

The Raven, has been addressed as many things - prophet, wretch, an ill-omen, thing of evil, "whether tempter sent" (probably referring as a tempest!)
The dead lover is reverently referenced to as – “a radiant maiden" and "a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore"

The best part of the poem, is the amalgamation of Paganism and Christianity with the diligent allusion to symbols. Sharing a few-
The Book of Lore – Probably Poe here references to the books on occult and black magic!
Pallas - The raven lands on the head of the bust representing Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom. Poe here implies, that the narrator is a scholar and well-read!
Night's Plutonian shore- Pluto, is regarded to be the God of the Underworld. Here Poe, may be trying to infer the raven as the messenger from the afterlife/after-death!
Nepenthe – is a drug that erases memory, from one of my personal favorites- “The Odyssey” by Homer! It is used here to lessen the pain of losing the lover.
Balm in Gilead - A soothing ointment found in the mountainous region of Palestine!
Aidenn - An Arabic word meaning Garden of Eden/Paradise. Poe uses the word to ask if Lenore can be accepted into Heaven.
Seraphim- In The Bible (Isaiah:6): "fiery ones," a high ranking, six-winged angel. It also refers to as an invisible way a scent profusely spreads in a room.

A 5-star showered, for the word “Nevermore”, as he can never see his dead wife again! An endless melancholy of lost love has been surgically and intricately represented in the utmost musical and mesmeric way. Only Allan Poe could have done this. I am in an irreversible awe!

NB- The narrator, tried to escape from the irrevocable grief by locking himself in a chamber (the main setting of this poem). This solitary chamber, turns out not to be impenetrable from the unending thoughts of the Lost Lenore! The lovers have been put asunder! Melancholy has invaded his life in entirety, and so has Poe’s magic on me!

Dentro de mi ignorancia, siempre tuve la ridícula creencia de que la poesía no eran más que rimas y versos, con puras temáticas cursis y románticas, bellamente escritas para hacer que las mujeres (funado por machista) den un gran suspiro tras leer cada estrofa; pero, esta lectura me enseñó que estaba bien equivocado.
En este poema tan célebre de su autor, conoceremos a un hombre atormentado por la soledad tras la pérdida de su esposa, quien posteriormente, recibirá la compañía de un peculiar cuervo que tiene la capacidad de hablar, pero que tan solo puede pronunciar una palabra. Una premisa bastante atrayente, pero ¿se aplicará esto a su lectura? ¿Realmente es ésta el opus magnun de Poe? Ay...

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning, 
Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than
before

WoW! What a poem it is!!

I am not into poems that much but this poem is exceptionally awesome. I couldn't stop reading this. I have read this poem at least 3 times by now. It's just that amazing. Once you started, you couldn't be able to stop until the end.
I have fallen in love with this poem of E. A. Poe. Madly!! I have even downloaded its audio version. And that's also really great.

I will not be spoiling any part of it. I would highly recommend this poem. It's just a five minutes read guys! Go head! Read it!
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

For audio version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Befli...

n   Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, 
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; 
    But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, 
    And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?” 
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”— 
            Merely this and nothing more. n

22 January, 2017

n  n

Fue mi primera experiencia con un audiolibro de este libro. Y fue espectacular, me hizo hasta temblar con ese maldito cuervo.

Tan corto y sencillo, pero buenísimo.

Es hermoso como Edgar Allan Poe muestra en tan pocas, pero bellas, palabras el dolor de la perdida y la desesperación.

4.0 Stars
I normally don't love poetry, but Poe knows how to write dark and creepy poetry. The prose flowed so well. I highly recommend an audiobook version so you can hear the rhythm of the stanzas.