The Raven (Illustrated). Эдгар Аллан По
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In their cressets, silver clear—
When Ligeia's spirit yearning
For the earth-life, wanders near—
When Morella's soul returning,
Weirdly whispers "I am here."
Once, within a realm enchanted,
On a far isle of the seas,
By unearthly visions haunted,
By unearthly melodies,
Where the evening sunlight slanted
Golden through the garden trees—
Where the dreamy moonlight dozes,
Where the early violets dwell,
Listening to the silver closes
Of a lyric loved too well,
Suddenly, among the roses,
Like a cloud, thy shadow fell.
Once, where Ulalume lies sleeping,
Hard by Auber's haunted mere,
With the ghouls a vigil keeping,
On that night of all the year,
Came thy souding pinions, sweeping
Through the leafless woods of Weir!
Oft, with Proserpine I wander
On the Night's Plutonian shore,
Hoping, fearing, while I ponder
On thy loved and lost Lenore—
On the demon doubts that sunder
Soul from soul forevermore;
Trusting, though with sorrow laden,
That when life's dark dream is o'er,
By whatever name the maiden
Lives within thy mystic lore,
Eiros, in that distant Aidenn,
Shall his Charmion meet once more.
The Raven by Edward Everett Hale
‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe is the one of his poems which is most inseparably connected with his name in common recollection. It is entirely expressive of the dominant sentiment of his life, the longing and regret for beauty which he had once known; it is an excellent example of his most popular qualities as a versifier; and he himself has selected it as a means of explaining how a poet might develop his ideas into poetic form. Like ‘Annabel Lee,’ ‘Ulalume’ and others of Poe's best-known verse, ‘The Raven’ is a recurrence of the thought of a beautiful love early known and early lost. In its form it has all the quality of softness and sonorousness, of repetition and refrain which will be found elsewhere in Poe. In ‘The Philosophy of Composition ’ Poe explains the steps by which these elements were built up and combined into the present poem. It is possible that he tells exactly what took place in his own mind. He was, however, rather fond of hoaxing people; he was also fond of exact intellectual manipulation; and it is very possible that his account is really an after-statement of what might have been. However that may be, the poem is a wonderful example of the emotional, even sentimental, lyric of the middle of the 19th century. It is a mistake to think of Poe's poetry as being more music than meaning. ‘The Raven’ has a very distinct meaning although not such as could easily be reduced to a systematic statement. In our own day such reveries and meditations seem sentimental and old fashioned; a century ago they were the natural moods of hundreds of young men. And no poem in our literature better expresses just the mood that in that post-Byronic day was so common, not even anything by Byron himtelf. As an expression of its author and its own time ‘The Raven’ is perfect. It realises an ideal of beauty which is rare to-day and which many to-day find it impossible to appreciate, but it it an ideal of beauty and it is realised.
Edward Everett Hale.
The Dreamer: Biography of Edgar Allan Poe
A romantic rendering of the life-story of Edgar Allan Poe
"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in waking, to find they have been upon the verge of the great secret."
—Edgar Allan Poe, in "Eleanora"
In the Sacred Memory
of
My Father and Mother